The Ribbon
by Blaze118
Summary: Six years before he and his team ruled the skies over Yuktobania and Belka, Antonio "Blaze" Castillo was know to the world only by his call sign; Mobius 1. Only a handful of people knew who he really was, but they were also afraid of him. With a heart full of anger and a lost will to live, Antonio must face his own demons to learn what it means to be alive and human.
1. Prologue: The Problem With My Life

**The Ribbon**

**Prologue - The Problem with my Life**

I never thought an eighteen year old kid could shape history in a way that would determine the fate of an entire continent, let alone the world, but it happened. I never thought the world would look up to a person they knew nothing about, but they did. I never thought that anyone would praise a man for killing someone, but they did. The world was a fucked up place, even before I became involved in this war, but everyone thought I was making Strangereal a better place. I started to wonder how the world would react knowing that their 'Lamb' was only seconds away from death.

**Monday, June 28, 2004 1822hrs Reyes Mountain Range, Osea**

"Antonio…. Antonio…. Castillo!"

The sound of my scout master snapped me back to reality. My troop and I were hiking to our camp site three miles away from where we parked our cars. I was one of the only two Life Scouts in my troop and the fourth oldest out of everyone. I only had to survive this hike so that I could present my Eagle Scout Project to my scout master. He thought I was insane because I brought nothing but the clothes I was wearing, a two liter camel back, and my pocket knife that I bought when I went to camp last summer. My project was to show him that a person could live off the wilderness with what I brought with me. I was glad that I didn't have to wear that stupid uniform. All I was wearing was a black workout shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of military grade boots.

"Are you alright?" asked my scout master.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking."

My scout master, Aaron Burciaga, was a five foot nine, stocky, Latino guy. He was a Captain in the Marine Corp and a good friend of my mentor. He's been my scout master ever since my mentor drafted me into the scouts as part of this rehabilitation program I was going through. When I was eight years old, my dad and two of my siblings died in an attack during an airshow at Camp Curtis, an American military base that the US military occupied after the Belkan war. I was hurt pretty badly and a group of people inducted me into a secret project, called Project Pitbull, where they trained kids to become 'super soldier'. My mentor was the person who saved me from the place when I tried to escape the facility when I was ten. I had the skills and knowledge of a secret agent by the time my mentor saved me, but I didn't know what it meant to be human anymore. Over the years, my mentor would take me along with him on these spiritual trips every summer so that way I could learn what it meant to be alive and every fall, he would allow me to attend regular school so that way I could learn to interact with people. Officially, I was still part of Project Pitbull however this version was a psychological reforming project. It was successful to the point where I would help people at the expense of my own well-being. I didn't really care what happened to me in life. I welcomed the thought of death. I went through each day of my life, bored of doing the same thing over and over again. I never fully found a purpose of my own so it was like I was living a life without meaning. I had a few friends who understood me and they kept trying to change my outlook on life, but I was still stuck in my own ways. I had to go everyday reliving the torment I endured from when I was young and I blamed one man in particular, though I doubted I would ever find him. I blamed the man who killed my father. I had no idea who he was or what he looked like. All I knew about him was that he had green eyes.

"You must've been deep in thought because I had to say your name five times to get your attention," said Aaron. "Anyways, what were you thinking about?"

"We're being followed," I whispered.

Aaron looked over his shoulder but he couldn't see anything. "Are you feeling alright?"

"I feel fine. I'm just saying, I know someone's following us," I said.

"Antonio, seriously, I think you should…"

"Look, how 'bout you go on ahead and I'll catch up. If I'm wrong, then you got nothing to worry about," I said.

"Alright, I'll see you at the campsite. Just keep following this trail and take a right when you get the fork in the road," said Aaron.

I gave him a thumb's up and veered off the trail and into the woods. Once I was out of sight from the rest of my troop, I climbed a nearby tree and positioned myself on a sturdy branch that hung over the trail that led to our camp sight. It was extremely dark without the flashlights the others carried to illuminate the trail. The night was calm under the starlit sky. The sounds of crickets and other insects along with the light breeze rustling through the trees seemed so peaceful. _Man, this is dull._ I waited for a couple minutes before I heard something that sounded out of place. I could hear it gradually getting louder and louder. _ I knew it._ Someone was on this same trail as we were but, they were trying to be sneaky about it. Whoever it was kept crouching to the side of the trail and kept turning their flashlight on and off. As the person drew closer, I could hear that he wasn't alone. There were two of them and I could hear them talking to each other.

"They don't know we're coming. Let's just hope it stays that way," said one of the men.

"We could just catch up to them and surprise the hell out of them like that. They won't be expecting that," said the other.

I had a bad feeling about these guys and I didn't like what they were talking about. They wanted to surprise my troop and it didn't sound good at all. I readied myself to confront the pair by taking off my camel back and throwing it on the opposite side of the trail. The sound it made during impact startled them and I heard one of them take the safety of a gun. _One of them is armed, outstanding._ I could barely see them in the dark but when they turned on a flashlight, I could see them a lot better. I didn't know who they were, but the sight of the gun was enough to make me suspect that these two were here to hurt someone. I jumped down and landed behind the unarmed guy. Once I hit the ground, I swiped his legs out from under him and I quickly move towards the guy who had the gun when he tried to point it at me, but as I pushed the gun away from me and brought my knife to the guy's neck, I saw who the man was.

"Harkin?" I asked.

"Kid, what the hell are you doing?" asked Harkin.

"I could ask you the same thing," I replied as I put my knife away.

"We were planning on surprising everyone," said Harkin.

"We," I asked befuddled.

Harkin pointed to the guy I tripped and saw that it was a former member of my troop, Devon Simpson. He and his three younger brothers were all part of my troop. Devon was already an Eagle Scout who joined the Navy SEALs. He was a tough S.O.B and so were his brothers.

"Devon, I thought you were in Usea," I said as I helped him off the ground.

"My deployment got postponed so I thought I'd come and say 'hi' to everyone," he said.

"Kid, what were you doing in that tree?" asked Harkin.

I told Harkin the whole story as the three of us continued to head down the trail. Nathan Harkin was my mentor who saved me from Project Pitbull when I was ten and he continued to look out for me from then on. He was like another father to me. Harkin was a Major in the Marine Corp. He was a fighter pilot and I looked up to him because of that. If it wasn't for Harkin, I'd probably be in jail, a mental institution, or I'd probably be dead. I owed the man my life. He was the reason I had a passion for flying. He flew in the Belkan war and he'd always tell me about his adventures. The one thing that made me keep a positive outlook on life was the thought of flying. The first time I ever went flying was the same day my dad had died. I never forgot the feeling of freedom I felt for the few minutes the pilot in the front seat let me have the controls. It was from that point on that I decided I wanted to be a fighter pilot when I got older, but then my dream became an obsession. I wanted to find the guy who killed half of my family so I could repay him for all the shit he put me through in life, but I knew the odds of me meeting him in the sky weren't in my favor. We continued walking and Devon brought up the war that was raging on the other side of the world, on the Usean continent. It all began with the fall of the Ulysses asteroid. It started as a huge meteorite that broke apart in the atmosphere and rained down large fragments upon the Usean continent and a few other countries. The meteor shower caused extensive damage to the affected countries' economies. To ensure an event like this never happened again, the country of Erusea built several extremely large rail guns, codename: Stonehenge, to shoot down asteroids while they were still in orbit. However, the Erusian government soon saw its potential as an anti-aircraft gun and started a campaign to take over the entire Usean Continent. The country of The Independent State had most of its territory already occupied and the country of North Point would be in danger of becoming occupied as well if the Independent Sates fell. The Independent Sates didn't have a military. They only had ISAF (Independent States Allied Forces) which was a military initiative that was composed of any military asset given to the Independent States by various countries. Devon volunteered to join ISAF along with a couple other people I knew.

"So where do you think you'll be deployed," I asked.

"I don't yet. I'll probably be sent on a bunch of missions behind enemy lines," he replied.

"I bet you're excited to finally get out of Wesson, huh?" asked Harkin.

"Yeah, I just had to get out of here. I mean, I miss you guys, but I can't spend the rest of my life here, ya know?" said Devon.

"Yeah, I hear you," I said solemnly.

"So what about you, Kid? What do you plan on doing when you graduate next year?" asked Harkin.

"Well, I already started looking at colleges and Oured University seems like they'd accept me. Afterwards, I plan on joining the Marine Corp as an officer."

"Well if you plan on going to Oured University, you might want to start looking for another job. I don't think waiting tables is going to cut it, and knowing you, I don't think your boss could put up with you for much longer."

"Yeah, I know," I said.

The hike to the camp site was nice. One of my friends along with my mentor was a nice change of pace for me. Once we got there, the rest of my troop was already settled in and gathered around the camp fire. Freshly caught fish from the nearby lake were already roasting over the fire and I was saved one so that I could eat, but I gave it to Devon so that he could eat. Everyone was surprise to see Harkin and Devon walk up with me and we all got a warm welcome. We all got settled in and joined the others around the camp fire. Devon told everyone the story of what happened when I surprised them and he brought up the fact that I wasn't given a nickname yet. It was a tradition for us to give each other nicknames, based on our personalities or on something stupid that we did. Devon's nickname was Buttercup because he always so serious. One guy's name was Lizard Tail because he ate a lizard's freshly severed tail on dare. There was also Fangs, because he had to wear head gear with his braces when he went to sleep. Snap, because he got hit in the back of his head with a bungee cord, and Crumbs; he wouldn't stop talking with his mouth full of food.

"Seriously, Antonio, you've been with us for almost two years now and we still haven't given you your nickname," said Devon.

"Well what are you waiting for?" I said.

"I've had one in mind for him for a while," said Aaron.

"Well let's hear it," said Fangs.

"Remember that last camping trip where he almost got mauled by the bear and managed to scare it off by toying with it?" asked Aaron and every nodded. "What about the fact that ya'll can never find him when you play man hunt?"

Everyone nodded again but no one had any idea where he was going with this and neither did I. No one in my troop knew anything about my past. The only things they did know about me were the skills I possessed. They knew I knew three different styles of martial and that I could speak three different languages. _I guess he's trying to say I'm sneaky._

"But the main reason I thought of this nickname is because his name is 'Antonio'," Aaron continued.

"Well, what is it?" asked Snap.

"Zorro," said Aaron with a smile.

_Zorro, huh, that's Spanish for 'Fox'._ I shrugged at the mention of the name because I really didn't mind it, nor did I really care. Everyone else agreed that it was a good name for me so I decided to just go with it. The night went on and we did our usual camp activities. We played man hunt, we wrestled, and told ghost stories. I honestly thought this night was very dull. Eventually, we got to the presentation of Snap's Eagle Scout project, which was about Astronomy. He began by pointing out the Little Dipper, so that we could navigate north, and other star constellations of significance. It was strange to think that I grew up on a planet that was so similar to Earth. Strangereal was discovered during the early 1960's while the Cold War was raging between the US and Russia. The other countries of Earth feared becoming caught in the middle if a war between both Superpowers did break out so they wanted to colonize Strangereal as soon as possible to escape nuclear war. Of course, some countries didn't have the technology or resources to become part of the space race, so their only choices were to turn to the US or Soviet Union for support or they could pool their resources with other countries who wanted to escape Earth. Five years after discovering Strangereal, the first settlements were already established. Osea was the product of US cooperation; Yuktobania was the result of the Soviet Union's cooperation, and finally Usea was the continent that was settled by countries that pooled their resources together. If that wasn't amazing enough, the speed at which the colonies developed into flourishing cities and the establishment of new countries was even more impressive. It only took 30 years to colonize the planet so that it seemed like Earth. When the governments of Osea, Yuktobania, and Usea were finally established, the countries of Earth forced Strangereal to keep some kind of connection between both planets under the threat of war. However, when the countries of Strangereal figured out how hollow Earth's threats were, they severed all ties and Strangereal became completely isolated from the rest of humanity.

I was born on June 19, 1987 in Honolulu Hawaii back on Earth. Both of my parents were Mexican and they both served in the Marine Corp, which was how they met. I lived in Hawaii for five year until my mother got deployed to Strangereal as insurance so that Osea could defend itself if Yuktobania or Usea tried to attack. When all connections to Earth were cut, the military forces from Earth were stranded with no way to get back, but no one really seemed to care. The Osean Government allowed the US military force to remain under their country's flag but now they were under the control of the Osean government. My mother and father were stationed at the Camp Curtis Military base in Wesson Osea. The base was home to the majority of all remaining US military forces on Strangereal. The US Army, Marines, and Air Force were all gathered in one single location. The remnants of the US Navy were all mixed in among the Osean Navy. Life here didn't seem that much different than life on Earth. Harkin and his wife, Elizabeth, were longtime friends of both my parents and we were glad when we found out he was here on Strangereal with us.

**Thursday, July 1, 2004 1848hrs Wesson, Osea **

**Hooligan's Bar and Grill**

I got back from the camping trip early this morning and I was officially an Eagle Scout, not that I really cared. I spent the rest of my day relaxing at my mother's house until I had to go to work. I hated working at this place with every fiber of my being but it was a job. I had to wait tables in this popular restaurant that attracted most of the Wesson's residents on any given day. The only thing I liked about it was that I didn't have to wear a uniform. I could dress casually as long as I wore my name tag and apron and they didn't give me a ration of crap about my shaggy hair style. The down side to working here was that I had to smile all the time and talk to people. I never smiled when I came to work and I would always look at people with a blank expression on my face. I've worked here for almost five months and it got old fast. Everyone I worked with knew I wasn't a people person and they never bothered to try and hold a conversation with me.

Tonight was like any other night. People were here with friends and family having a good time. The only reason most people were here was because it was baseball season and Hooligan's had a half off special for all meals if the customers predicted who would win the games. I had my hands full trying to quickly get people their drinks, handing out their food, and checking on all five of my tables. Everything was going smoothly until a family of four came in and I got stuck with them. I took the family's order and the father made it clear to me that he didn't want tomatoes on anything and I made sure I got it right. I took his order to the kitchen and continued my rounds around the restaurant. When the family's order was ready, I brought them their food and left them to eat. It wasn't long before I was pulled aside by the father to complain about his meal.

"I said I didn't want tomatoes on my food," he said angrily.

I walked over to his table to examine his plate and saw that he was confusing the tomatoes with red peppers. "Those are red peppers, Sir," I replied.

"No their not, they're tomatoes. I'm allergic to tomatoes and you went ahead and put them on there anyways."

"No I didn't, Sir, I told…."

The father cut me off and began to lecture me about my lack of intelligence. I leaned back against the nearby wall and turned my attention to the TV to my right, ignoring the guy. The news broadcast was about the war over in Usea and about how the Erusian forces were dominating the Independent States. They were moving quickly with the help of Stonehenge. ISAF attempted to conduct numerous bombing raids to destroy the place but they were easily destroyed before they could even reach their target. ISAF was quickly running out of volunteer pilots and there was no way they could halt the Erusian advance without a stronger air force. The news broadcast cut to a commercial and an advertisement from ISAF began to play. I don't know how exactly the thought first occurred to me but I wanted to go over to Usea and fight in the war. Maybe I just thought that dying for some pointless war was the way for me to go out in style. _Maybe I should drop out of school and join._

"Hey, are you even listening to me?" shouted the father.

I had completely ignored him and as I looked around, I could see that a bunch of people were staring at us. "Are you done making yourself look like an ignorant jack ass?" I asked sarcastically.

"Do you know who I am?!"

"No, Sir, did you forget?" I retorted and I could hear a couple of people laugh at what I had just said.

The father grabbed me by my shirt like he was going to hit me. My fight instinct was suddenly triggered and I twisted his wrist with my right hand so that he let go of my shirt. As soon as I felt him let go, I used my free hand to grab him by the back of his neck and leveled him face first into the wall I was leaning against. The man fell to the floor as blood ran down his nose and his wife quickly rushed to his side. Everyone else who saw what happened just gawked at me. I noticed my hands were shaking from the adrenaline rush I was experiencing and it felt good. I haven't felt a feeling like this in two years and I started to wish it lasted longer. I wanted the guy to get up and try to fight me so that I could kick his ass. Eventually, I didn't care if he got up, I just wanted to fight. My manager walked up to me and started to ask what had happened. I didn't say anything as I handed him my apron and name tag as I walked past him. I was now out of a job and I didn't care either. I felt a huge relief sweep over me as I headed to my red minivan that I bought with my own money. I could've gotten myself a much better looking car but if I did, my mother would've wondered how I was able to afford it. There was a lot that my friends and family didn't know about me. Only Harkin knew about what I've really been doing and he actually supported it. If mom found out about it, she would've literally killed him and more than likely disowned me. I was about to pull out of the parking lot when I saw blue lights flash behind me. _Great…._

**1903hrs, Wesson Police Station**

Apparently, people are asshole when it comes to choosing sides. The people who saw what had happened claimed that I put my hands on the guy first. The guy's wife added on to the statement saying that I attempted to murder him with food. _It takes a special kind of dumbass to believe something like that._ If that wasn't bad enough, I also got charged with assaulting a police officer when one of the cops was going to try and taze me for no good reason. One thing led to another and now, I was in a holding cell with four other people. One of them looked like he belonged to a motorcycle gang, another looked like a drug dealer, the next guy looked like he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the last guy looked like a pedophile. The biker was sitting on the bench, hunched over as he twiddled with his fingers. The innocent looking guy seemed really tense as he sat between the biker and the drug dealer, and the pedophile kept shooting glances at me from the opposite corner of the room. He really started to annoy me and the pissed off look on my face kept growing until I couldn't take it anymore.

"What the hell you looking at," I growled.

"Nothing, nothing," he replied.

"Then turn your attention somewhere else."

The pedophile sank to the ground and buried his face in his knees. As I continued to wait for Harkin, I thought about my life so far. There was nothing here for me anymore and I honestly couldn't see myself going into the civilian world. I grew up around the military and it seemed to be my only way out of this boring ass part of the world. I needed the adventure and the adrenaline rush I used to experience two years ago when I did the DEAs dirty work around Wesson and I needed it soon. Otherwise, I might actually start to lose my mind again. The thought of joining ISAF was still running through my mind and I started to wonder about how I could contribute to the allied cause. I could go in as infantry because I was already trained for it but then again, what soldier would trust a seventeen year old kid with their life? If I was going to join with ISAF, I needed to be doing something that didn't make my allies weary of fighting with a kid. _They were short on pilots!_ Flying was the one thing I knew a lot about. During the Belkan war, I followed Galm team as they supported the allies throughout the entire war. I would've loved to meet Cipher and Pixy. After I was rescued from Pitbull, I read books about some of the greatest pilots of humanity. Eddie Rickenbacker, Saburo Sakai, and Robin Olds were my three favorite aces throughout history. Saburo Sakai was my all-time favorite. He was the most famous Japanese pilot during WWII. I've read his book, Samurai, over fifty times and studied his flying style along with other famous pilot throughout the years. I also played a lot of flight simulator video games which allowed me to apply what I knew about aerial combat. If I wanted to join ISAF, then I'd do it as a pilot. I relished the thought of flying in the war, but that's all they were, thoughts. I let out a sigh of disappointment knowing that something like that was well out of my reach. I continued to think about it when I saw Harkin walk up to the holding cell door with a police officer.

"Before I tell this man to release you, I need to hear your side of the story," said Harkin.

"A guy thought I tried to kill him with food and put his hands on me. I retaliated by slamming his head against a wall," I said.

"Okay, what about the two cops you beat up?"

"It was defense against police brutality. If you don't believe me, watch those guys' dash cam. I'm pretty sure it caught everything."

"I already did. You didn't have to fracture the guy's wrist and give his partner a concussion," said Harkin.

"They didn't need to use deadly force. They could've asked nicely so that way I didn't have to cuff myself and wait for them to get in the car," I said.

Harkin sighed and had the cop open the cell door so that I could get out. Harkin paid for my bail and we left the police station. I was glad when I finally got away from that creep who kept staring at me. I got into Harkin's car and we drove back to my mother's place in silence for most of the way. Driving through the city always made me feel like I was going to end up as one of these people for the rest of my life. They all took the same route to work at the same exact time each day. They always did the same routine over and over again. This was the exact same way I've lived my life while I grew up here. I could only do the same thing for so long before I got tired of it.

"You alright, Kid?" asked Harkin.

"Just thinking," I replied softly.

"Something's bothering you, am I right?" I nodded and continued looking out the window as we drove on the freeway towards my house. "Talk to me, what's up?"

"Why did you join the military, Sir?" I asked.

"I guess it was because I needed change in my life but mostly because I felt like I wasn't making a difference with anything I was doing at the time. As soon as I graduated high school I enlisted, went to college under the GI Bill, and became a pilot in the Belkan war. Why do you ask?"

"I don't think I can wait until I graduate high school to join," I said.

"You still got the 'urge', don't you?" asked Harkin and I nodded. "I know how you feel, Kid. It takes some time to get used to."

"I don't think I can get used to it soon enough. This whole time, I've been thinking about dropping out of school and just straight up enlisting."

"And where do you plan on going from there?"

"I'll volunteer to join ISAF and help them out," I said.

"Are you crazy, Kid? That war over there is a lost cause," said Harkin.

"That's only because they don't have enough pilots. I bet if you dusted off your old wings, you could make a huge difference in the war," I said.

"That part of my life is over. I can never go back," he sighed.

"Well, what if you trained me to fly? I know you know that I know a lot about flying and you know that I excel in a fight."

"Fighting an air war is a hell of a lot different than fighting drug lords and mob bosses."

"But you wouldn't have sent me in there to unless you knew I could do it. I didn't want to take part in that last operation you put together with me and those other Pitbull guys, but I did anyway. This is something I want to do."

"Kid, listen to me. You got your whole life ahead of you and you're just lowering your life expectancy by looking for a fight like that."

I wanted to argue with him more about it but I knew he would hold his ground. Harkin was a very hard man to convince when it came to debating a topic. I sighed in frustration as we drove the rest of the way to my mother's house. I lived in a simple three bedroom house with my mother and younger sister. It was a cozy little place, ideal for me and my remaining family. Harkin dropped me off in front of my drive way and I got out of his car.

"Hey," he called to me and I turned to look at him. "Just give things time, everything will come full circle."

I felt myself smile a little and I nodded in return. It quickly vanished when I heard him say that I needed a haircut. As Harkin drove off, I made my way to the front door of my house and spotted one of my two cats sitting on the steps. She was a fluffy looking black and tan cat, named Fluffy Cat. I couldn't think of any other name for her so that's what everyone called her. The other cat, named Mittens, was a chubby looking Russian Blue cat with white paws. I hated both of them with a passion. I opened my front door and was greeted by my mother, Isabel Lira. She had heard about what happened during my last day of work and she didn't seem too happy about it.

"I don't want to talk about what happened. All you need to know is that the people of this town are freaking stupid," I said.

"That doesn't give you the right to beat the crap out of someone just because they pissed you off," said my mother.

"He put his hand on me first and did what I had to," I said as I brushed past her and headed to my room. I buried my face in my pillow after I threw myself on my bed. _This repetitious cycle of my life has to end._ I tried to relax but I was interrupted when I heard someone running towards me and jump. I instinctively rolled off my bed and whoever tried jumping on me bounced off my bed and into the wall. I got up off the ground and peeked over my bed to see my little sister, Amanda, holding her forehead as she gritted her teeth.

"You just never learn, do you," I said sarcastically.

"I think I learned my lesson this time," she said as she sat up in my bed. "Did you really beat up someone?"

"Yes and no," I replied.

"What happened?"

I told Amanda the whole story from when the guy arrived, up until I got arrested. I found out that the guy was attempting to press charges against me but they weren't valid for some reason. My sister and my mother were the only two family members who survived the Curtis attack with me. Amanda was alive because of me and she almost became part of Project Pitbull as well. My dad had saved my mother when he used his own body to protect her from the blast, but he couldn't save my younger brother and older sister. If Amanda didn't have to use the bathroom when she did, she and I would've probably died that day. When I came back from Pitbull, Amanda was the happiest person in the world and our bond was closer than ever. I was her best friend in the whole world and I looked out for her.

"You really got to keep your fight instinct in check. You don't want a repeat of what happened last year," said Amanda.

"I'll just have to rely on you again if that happens," I said.

"Yeah, anyways, what are you going to do tomorrow?"

"I don't really know yet. Maybe I'll look for another job or just relax. I still have to take my saxophone to the repair shop before band camp starts."

"I forgot about that. I can't wait until I get to join you. It's going to be so much fun," said Amanda as she got off my bed and skipped out of my room.

I got back onto my bed and laid there for half an hour longer until I got up and went over to my computer desk. I logged onto my computer and started up my favorite flight simulator, Ace Warfare 04: Devastated Heavens. It was a flight simulator that allowed the players to fly planes from every war throughout human history. As I waited for it to load, I got my joystick, throttle lever, and rudder pedals all situated. My user name was 0118; the number I was given while I was in Pitbull. It had no meaning and those numbers seemed to follow me everywhere, so I made it my username for all of my online profiles. However, after I logged on, I decided to change my name and use the nickname the guys from my troop gave me. I was now playing under the gamer tag, Zorro118, and I guess I liked it because I felt myself smiling. As I waited for the game to load, I saw a player in the lobby who's been dogging me ever since I started playing this game. His name was Cipher032 and I figured that he was just a wannabe at first, but every time I played against him, he'd always shoot me down. He always flew a Bf-109 and I'd always fly a P-51.

When the game finally loaded up, I grabbed hold of my controls and we all began to play. The rules were simple. We all had one life and whoever was left standing, won. There were two teams of twelve playing in this lobby and we all started to engage each other. I formed up on a teammate's right wing and began to follow him through all of his maneuvering as he picked out a target. His gamer tag was BFS Drunk Panda. He and I dove into the fur ball and singled out an enemy Spitfire. The enemy player didn't see us diving on him as Panda unloaded a barrage of bullets into the enemy plane's right wing and shot it down. _Nice one! _We both climbed back up to gain altitude when I saw a hail of bullets shoot past my plane. I looked back and saw a P-47 chasing after us.

"Panda, we got one following us," I said into my headset.

"I see him. Break off and let's see who he chases," replied Panda.

I broke off of Panda's wing and saw the P-47 continue chasing him. I reversed my direction and began to chase him. _This is going to be a bit tricky. _The P-47 was a tough S.O.B. to knock out of the sky, but I found the easiest way to shoot it down was by aiming for the cockpit. I followed Panda as he led the enemy plane into a series of hard left and right turns before he led him into a wide loop. I quickly lined up the plane in my gun sight and fired a long stream into the plane's cockpit, killing the player's pilot.

"Nice one, Zorro. Let's find another one," said Panda and we both dove back into the fight.

The sky was in complete chaos as both sides gunned for each other. Tracers were streaming in from every direction as everyone played cat and mouse. Some of the players' planes were streaming smoke as they continued gunning for their targets. As I was looking around, I noticed an enemy FW-190 coming in from my three o' clock. He was aiming for Panda, but he didn't see me trailing behind him. I told Panda to break left and he did so without hesitation. I continued to fly straight and adjusted my plane so that when I fired a burst from my guns, the enemy plane flew right into it. The Fw-190 was trailing fire and black smoke from its engine and I watched as the aircraft nosed over towards the ground. But when I looked back up to find Panda's plane, he was gone. I frantically started scanning my surroundings trying to find his plane, but a stream of bullets that shot pass in front of me was enough to gain my attention. I quickly snapped the stick left while I cut back on the throttle and applied full left rudder. I managed to evade the bullets and I looked behind me to see an enemy P-38 shoot past me from seven o' clock high. I thought he was going to dive away but instead, he reversed his direction and tried to come after me. Before he reversed his direction I had already made my decision to go after him and I was already in the process of turning after him as he was turning to meet me. I was already inside his turn radius before he could get his gun sight on me so I quickly lined him up and filled him full of lead so that his right boom was severed from its engine. When the boom flew off, a large portion of the tail section went along with it and the P-38 went spiraling towards the ground. I looked around for another target after I made sure I wasn't being followed. I saw an enemy A6M5 Zero chasing a friendly Ta-152 at low altitude. I jammed the stick over to the right and winged over to give chase, but I wasn't fast enough. The enemy Zero had already opened fire on my teammate and severed his left wing from the rest of the aircraft. When the Zero began to claw for altitude, he gave me a clear shot on his fuel tank. It didn't take much to shoot down a Zero because they were lightly armored. I brought my guns to bear on my target, tapped the trigger, and sent six bullets towards the Zero. The bullets impacted just behind the wing root of the enemy plane and I watched as it turned into a brilliant fire ball. I pulled back on the stick and began to gain altitude. Once I was high enough, I circled overhead and watched as the fight raged down below. I saw Panda doing work on the remaining enemy planes while Cipher032 mopped up my remaining teammates. I dove after Cipher from out of the sun and brought my guns on his Bf-109 so that I could fire on him once he was in range, but I screwed up. The angle I was diving at made it difficult to pull out of my dive in time and I ended up overshooting my mark. _Please don't see me, please don't see me. Please don't see me!_ I looked back and saw Cipher diving after me. I quickly looked at the scoreboard and saw that Panda and I were the only ones left on our team. Cipher and three of his other teammates were all that remained on the other team. I pulled out of the dive and began to pull up into a climb as I kept my eye on Cipher's Bf-109. I saw him fire his guns on me and I quickly snap rolled to the left to avoid the stream of bullets and cannon shells. I was at ten thousand feet when I leveled out of the climb and pulled into a hard right turn with Cipher clinging tightly to my tail.

"Zorro, I could use some help over here," called out Panda.

I looked over towards my two o' clock low and spotted his Mustang being pursued by Cipher's three remaining teammates. "I'm a little preoccupied with your with this guy over here," I replied.

"Aww crap, we're going to lose," said Panda.

"Like hell we are," I said.

I snapped the sick back and put my Mustang into stall. I hit full bottom rudder, which dropped the nose and the torque of the propeller twisted the plane counter clockwise 180 degrees. I pushed the stick forward, neutralizing the effect, and waited for the plane to regain speed as it fell out of the sky, so I could pull out of the stall I had entered. Meanwhile, I watched as Cipher overshot and circled back around to find me, but I had lost him completely. Once I picked up flying speed again, I changed my heading to help out Panda. He was trying his best to throw off the enemy plane that were chasing him. I pushed my throttle all the way forward and sped towards the enemy planes. Once I was in range of the first enemy plane, I unloaded a bunch of rounds into the plane's tail section. The horizontal and vertical stabilizer was torn completely off and the remaining half of the plane fell out of the sky. One of the remaining enemy planes broke off while the other continued to chase Panda's plane. I could see that the enemy pilot was flying an F6F Hellcat. Like the P-47, the Hellcat was designed to take damage. I didn't have enough ammo for me to shoot him down by firing wildly at him. I told Panda to put his Mustang into a climb so that I could get a shot on the enemy plane. Panda pulled into a hard right turn, then quickly went into a vertical climb. The Hellcat aggressively followed him. He was oblivious to my presence and I took advantage of the situation. I pulled lead onto the enemy plane and aimed for his cockpit so that when I fired, I killed the player's pilot. I watched as his plane nosed over and disappeared into a cloud, but while I was looking at him head towards the ground, the other enemy fighter that broke off from Panda was now headed for me. I pushed the stick forwards and dove for speed so that I could get away. My plane was pushing its speed limit so I pulled up into a climbing right turn. My attacker was flying a Ki-84. It was superior to my Mustang in every way and in the hands of a good pilot, it could outperform everyone. I saw tracers shoot past my canopy and I quickly reversed my direction to get away from the enemy pilot but he really knew what he was doing. I had set myself up for a deflection shot from my opponent and I couldn't maneuver out of the way in time. However, when I saw his plane's wings start to light up; Panda swooped down and dove on top of the enemy plane as he fired into his engines.

"Anthony, I need your help with something," called Amanda.

"Can't, I'm busy right now," I shouted back.

"Then put your game on pause and come here."

"One minute!"

I turned my attention back to my computer screen and saw that the only player me and Panda had to deal with was Cipher, but we couldn't see him anywhere. _Dammit, where is he?_ I was scanning every part of the sky and we still couldn't find him. Panda and I were circling at thirteen thousand feet scanning the area below us, but then something occurred to this guy was smart, he would bounce us from out of the sun. I doubted the fact that he could be that good but then I thought about it some more. _He could know what he's doing. Why else would his name be Cipher032?_ I looked above and behind me and saw that I was clear and then I looked at Panda's six o' clock high. I saw Cipher's Bf-109 diving on him at full speed. His nose and wings were engulfed in flames as he fired his guns into Panda's Mustang.

"Aww, dammit," groaned Panda. "Sorry, Zorro, you're on your own now."

"Why do you sound like you doubt me?" I asked.

"Because I know you don't stand a chance against this guy. I give you five minutes, at most."

_Thanks for the vote of confidence._ I turned my plane towards Cipher as he climbed back up to meet me and we were coming at each other from head on. Cipher opened fire on me as soon as he got within range. I rolled over his plane and performed a split S to gain some speed so that I could catch up to Cipher, but he mimicked my maneuver and started to come at me from head on again. I tried to get the first shot on Cipher this time but he barrel rolled over me and performed another split S while I followed him. The maneuvering towards each other like this quickly turned into a descending rolling scissors. We were losing altitude pretty quickly and neither one of us could slow down enough to get behind each other. We had made almost a dozen passes at each other before we finally ran out of room to dive and we both flew in opposite directions away from each other. I was a good distance away from Cipher until I decided to turn back towards him and we started to maneuver into a climbing rolling scissors. We were stuck in a stalemate and I didn't know what to do. If I broke out of the maneuver, Cipher could dive on me and gain the upper hand. I didn't have a choice. I had to keep performing the maneuver if I wanted to win. But when I turned to engage Cipher again, he wasn't there. I had no idea where he was and that's what scared me. I kept banking left and right trying to find the guy, but I still couldn't see him. _The sun!_ I had to lure him out and I knew that I'd be putting myself in danger if I didn't time my counter attack just right. I turned my back towards the sun and flew in the opposite direction from it. I kept my eyes on the sun even though my computer screen had turned completely white.

"Anthony, seriously I need your help," called out Amanda.

"With what?" I shouted and I heard Amanda coming into my room.

My eyes were still glued to my computer screen as Amanda held a jar of chip salsa in front of my face. As soon as she did, I saw a black dot appear in the middle of my screen. It was growing quickly and I knew it was my opponent diving on me. _ Alright, here we go._ I cut the throttle back, snapped the stick to the left, hit full bottom rudder, and barrel rolled to the left to avoid his stream of bullets.

"Anthony!"

_God dammit!_ I quickly snatched the jar out of my sister's hand, twisted the lid off, handed it back to my sister, and gripped my controls. I recovered from the barrel roll and tried to chase after Cipher as he climbed, but he was using the speed advantage he gained in the dive to climb out of my reach. I didn't have enough speed to go after him and my Mustang went into a stall. I looked back at Cipher to see him nose over into a dive after me. I had to think of something and fast. My plane slowly began to recover from the stall, but I didn't pull out of the dive. Instead, I kept going. I was slowly out running Cipher and out of room to dive. I pulled out of my dive and began to make a run for it at tree top level. The ground below was mountainous and I decided that the best way for me to lose my attacker was to fly through the valleys. I was hugging the cliff faces so that every time I made a turn, Cipher couldn't pull lead on me. He was closing on me fast and I knew that if I made even the slightest of mistakes, I would lose the fight. There was no way I was going to lose against this guy who thinks he's as good as the real Cipher. I continued to fly through the valleys but I eventually ran out of room to maneuver. I couldn't bank left or right, I couldn't dive away without crashing, and I couldn't climb without becoming an easy target. Cipher was closing on me and I decided to call on the maneuver that Harkin always talked to me about, the high G barrel roll. I cut the throttle, snapped the stick back and to the left, and applied full bottom rudder. My speed dropped as I watched my attacker shoot past me. As soon as I saw him in front of me I opened the throttle all the way as I gave chase. I couldn't keep my target in my sights with the way he was throwing his plane all over the sky. He pulled into a climbing left turn that made it impossible for me to pull lead on him. I was still on his tail as he lost airspeed in his climb. When he couldn't climb any higher, he leveled off for a split second and then went into a shallow dive as he continued to twist left and right. I had given him a wide berth so that he couldn't counter maneuver and so that I didn't have to maneuver as violently to keep him in my sights. I was two hundred yards behind him and I wasn't going to let him get away. All of a sudden, Cipher threw his plane into a steep dive towards the ground. I had no choice but to go after him at full speed. I was gaining on him fast and I lined him up in my gun sight. Just when I was about to fire on him, he pulled out of his dive, snapped his plane into a stall and applied full left rudder. His plane flung around into a horizontal spin that would allow him to keep his guns pointed at me if and when I overshot. However, he did his maneuver too soon. Just as I was passing by him, I pulled up and used the airspeed that I gained in the dive to climb out of his reach. I looked back to see Cipher's Bf-109 come out of its maneuver and fly straight. The move robed my opponent of speed and he wouldn't be able to maneuver fast enough if I dove after him again. I wasted no time in rolling my Mustang over and diving on top of the enemy plane. He was too low to the ground to dive and he couldn't break left or right without exposing himself to my attack. In a last ditch effort, Cipher began to pull into a climb to try and throw off my attack, but it didn't work. I unloaded the rest of my ammo into his engine block and knocked his ass out of the sky_. Ha-ha, take that you son of a gun! _I stood up out of my chair and raised both my fist into the air in triumph. My sister then raised her hand in front of my mouth and presented me with a tortilla chip covered in salsa. I bit the chip out of her hand and sat back down in my seat.

"Did you win?" asked Amanda.

"Yes I did. I should fly planes for a living," I said still chewing my chip.

"Damn, Zorro, I thought he nearly had you," said Panda over my headset.

"There was no way I was going to let this guy take Cipher's name when he clearly doesn't deserve it," I replied and I logged off my computer.

I headed into the kitchen to grab something to eat. Mom had made Enchiladas and they were some of the best in the world. Nothing could compare to my mother's cooking. Anyone would say that about their mother but I believe my mother was the best. After I was done eating, I went into the garage and worked out a bit before I went to bed. While I was in the middle of dead lifting, my phone went off and I answered it.

"Hey, Kid, it's me," said Harkin.

"Yes, Sir, what's up?" I replied.

"Do you think you could meet me at Curtis tomorrow? I know I'm asking a lot from you but I got something I want to show you."

Ever since I moved to Wesson after the Belkan war ended, I've only been on Camp Curtis once and that was the day of the attack. Since then, I refused to go back because I felt like I'd relive that day all over again. Everyone I knew knew that I never wanted to go back onto that base because of that reason. My sister was just as reluctant to go back. Harkin's request was an extremely bold one and I wanted to refuse.

"When and where," I asked as I sighed.

"At noon in front of the memorial," said Harkin.

The memorial Harkin was talking about was a commemorative wall that was built to remember the people who died during the attack. It was built right next to the secondary runway where the green-eye pilot dropped his last bomb.

"I'll be there," I said and I hung up. ght without exposing himself to my attack. In a last ditch effor o and was ed full left rudder. His plane flun


	2. So it Begins

**The Ribbon**

**Chapter 1 – So it begins**

**Friday, July 2, 2004 1204hrs, Camp Curtis Memorial**

I had to call a cab to get on base because my van was still impounded. I slept in all day because there wasn't really anything I could do other than my usual morning workout. Whenever I woke up, I did a total of a hundred pushups, two hundred sit ups, and fifty pull ups. Afterwards, I would go for a thirty minute run or ten minutes of jump roping at a hundred and twenty jumps per minute. This was my usual morning workout and I did it every day. After I completed my work out this morning, I took a shower and got ready to meet Major Harkin at the base. The cab driver didn't say anything to me during the ride and I really didn't care. Camp Curtis didn't seem all that different from when I last saw it eight years ago. All evidence of the destruction had long since faded away but I could remember where the bombs had fallen and where I had been knocked out. I could even point out the place where I last saw Amanda before I was wounded. The spot the memorial was built on was where the bleachers were when the last bomb impacted the ground, the same exact spot where my father, sister, and brother died. I looked at all the names that were on the memorial. Eighty-four people died that day and yet there were ninety-two names on the wall. _I don't know why we haven't asked for my name to be removed yet._ The more I thought back to the day of the attack, the more the lower left side of my back started to hurt. When the last bomb hit, a piece of shrapnel embedded itself into my back and I almost died because of it. The pain just seemed to come back the instant I thought about it.

"Hey, Kid!"

I looked over to my right and saw Major Harkin approaching me in his car. He motioned for me to get in and we drove around the hangers to the get to the primary runway. No planes had been in the sky all day, nor were there any on the flight line. _Something's not right. Where are all the ground crews and aircraft?_ Harkin didn't seem too disturbed by the anomaly. Harkin was just as sharp as I was and he would've noticed how strange everything was by now, but he didn't say anything. We arrived in front of one of the main hangers on the flight line of the primary runway. The hanger was closed so Harkin parked his car on the side of it and we got out. Harkin led me to the side door where he unlocked it with a key card and we both entered the building. The first thing I saw was a man welding something with a blow torch on a work bench. His welding mask obscured my view of his face and I didn't have the slightest idea who he was. The man looked over at us and Harkin walked on ahead while I watched as they conversed. The man Harkin was talking to turned his head away when he took off his welding mask and put on a pair of aviator sunglasses. He continued talking to Harkin and I could see the man looking over Harkin's shoulder to look at me. _What's up with this guy?_ A couple minutes had passed and they were both still talking. I started to wander around the hanger a little bit and noticed that it was divided by a makeshift wall. Some things that I noticed around this half of the hanger were the personal pictures and awards hanging on the wall. There were also some familiar aircraft parts organized neatly on the ground.

"Hey, don't touch!" I looked over at the man who was talking to Harkin and saw him coming towards me. "Those parts are more valuable than your life."

"I figured as much. Even I'd be nervous about someone messing with parts to a P-51," I said.

"How did you know?"

"I've had a thing for airplanes ever since I was a kid. The first plane I ever flew was the Mustang."

The man looked back at Harkin and he nodded in return. "I want to show you something," said the man and motioned for me to follow him. He led me to the other side of the makeshift wall and I was surprised to see what was there. It was a very familiar looking airplane. "Does this look familiar to you in any way?"

"This was the first plane I flew when I was eight," I said and then I looked the pilot. "You're the guy who took me flying that day."

The man nodded, turned, and walked towards Major Harkin. They were both talking again and I could hear bits and pieces of what they were saying. They were talking about me and by the looks they were giving me, it seemed like they were arguing. While they were doing that, I looked over the aircraft that was sitting in the hanger. Every part of it was well maintained and still airworthy. The paint scheme was that of the 352nd Fighter Group. They made their mark in history during the battle of Y29 back on Earth in 1945. Whether or not this airplane was one of the group's Mustangs was beyond me, but the paint job was nice touch.

"Just do it! He may surprise you and if he doesn't, I won't bother you with this again," shouted Harkin.

I looked over at Harkin and his friend. They both looked at me and I felt like I was being put on the spot. It was right then that I started to question why I was really here. Harkin initially said that he had something that he wanted to show me but now I suspected there was another reason as to why I was here.

"Alright, I'll do it," sighed Harkin's friend. "Kid, get in."

He was pointing to the plane and I had no idea what was going on. We were going flying and I had no idea why. I looked at Harkin, hoping he would tell me what was going on. All he did was tilt his head, encouraging me to go. I hesitantly climbed onto the wing of the Mustang and climbed into the back seat. As I was strapping myself in, Harkin's friend gave me a pair of expensive looking Aviator sunglasses and a headset set so we could communicate with each other.

"So, what should I call you?" I asked.

"Solo," he muttered angrily.

_Alrighty then, let's go. _I put on the sunglasses and headset as Solo strapped himself into his seat. I looked down in front of me to see the copilot's controls. The stick, rudder pedals, throttle lever, flap lever, and landing gear lever seemed like they were tacked on at the last minute, but I knew they were fully functional. The only instrument gauges that were in front of me were the altimeter and speedometer. I really didn't need much else if I was going to fly this thing again. Harkin opened the hanger door and Solo started the plane up. I was anxious to actually fly again but I knew that this was a test of some kind. The engine began to putter and Solo applied a little more power to the engine. The puttering became the sweet humming of the P-51's Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. Solo then started to taxi onto the runway as Harkin waved at me.

"Can you hear me, Kid?" he asked.

"Loud and clear, Sir," I replied. "Hey, what's going on? Why am I going flying in this thing again?"

"I thought about what you said last night while I was driving you home and after you proved that you could out fly me, I figured I'd test you," said Harkin.

_That was Harkin I flew against last night? _"I already figured this was a test, but for what?"

"We'll talk about it later, assuming you pass."

"Until then, your ass is mine," said Solo added.

_Oh crap. _We had finally made it onto the runway and Solo had stopped at the end of it. I could tell he was going to let me have it and I tried to mentally prepare myself for what was about to happen. Without warning, Solo slammed the throttle all the way forward and we started to shoot down the runway. We were quickly approaching take off speed and when we did, we lifted off of the ground. I felt myself gripping the edge of my seat like I did when I flew for the first time. Solo banked to the right and began a climbing right turn into the sky. My heart was racing as we zoomed through the air at two hundred and fifty mile an hour. It was the same adrenaline rush I felt eight years ago and it felt great. Solo was twisting and turning all over the place and I tried to move with the plane so that I didn't end up knocking myself out again. He was pushing the plane higher and higher and I started to wonder how long I could stay conscious at an altitude with little oxygen.

"Alright, Kid, let's see how long you can stay conscious under a bunch of Gs," said Solo

"What?"

Solo didn't say anything as he rolled the plane over and pulled a tight split S. My sunglasses slipped down my nose and I was breathing more heavily as I struggled to stay conscious. _Tighten your legs and abdomen to stay conscious. _According to Solo, we had just endured four Gs, but he wasn't done yet. After he pulled out of the split S, he went into a vertical climb and swung the Mustang's tail around so that we were now diving straight down. We were headed towards the ground at over three hundred miles an hour and we were only going faster. I looked at the speedometer and saw that we were approaching four hundred miles an hour. Solo then snapped the stick back and I quickly caught my sunglasses before they flew off. I was grunting as he pulled six Gs when he nosed up out of the dive. Harkin could hear me on the ground and I could tell he was getting a kick out of this.

"Keep breathing, Kid. There's nothing else to it," said Harkin over the radio.

"Easier said than done," I replied.

"Hey, it could be worse. I could've had you fly with me in a jet without you wearing a G suit."

I quickly slipped my sunglasses into my pocket and turned my attention to what was happening. Solo was flying harder than before. None of his maneuvers had a smooth transition between them. This made it difficult for me to stop myself from being tossed around in my harness. I practically felt my neck crack a couple times when Solo reversed his turns. I even hit my head on the side of the canopy multiple times. Solo was laughing in the front seat as he held a continuous roll to the right. I was getting extremely dizzy and I could feel myself getting close to vomiting. I didn't know if it was spite or if I just wanted it all to end, but I grabbed the control stick in front of me and snap it over to the left. The sudden change in direction came as a surprise to Solo and his head slammed against the canopy, knocking him out cold. _Oh, shit!_ The pilot was knocked out and I was all alone. _Oh man, oh shit, I didn't mean to do that!_ I was freaking out because I had no idea what I was doing. Yeah, I flew a simulation but that was a hell of a lot different than flying in real life. _Okay, Antonio, get a grip and recover the plane from the spin. _I grabbed the stick and gently pushed it over to the right so that the plane stopped spinning. The Mustang leveled out at five thousand feet and I reached in front of me to check Solo's pulse. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found that he was still alive. I then sat back in my seat and looked out through the canopy. I could see all of Wesson from up here and I felt a great deal of happiness sweep over me. For the first time in my life, I felt free. All the pain and suffering I've endured since I was born had disappeared. I felt like nothing could hold me back from doing anything and everything. This was actually happening and I was going to make the most of it. I was nervous about how I was going to get back on the ground but I decided to worry about that later.

"Hey, did the kid pass out yet?" asked Harkin over the radio.

"Nope, but Solo did," I replied.

"What," Harkin exclaimed.

"I tried to reverse the roll and he hit his head. I got control of the bird though."

"Kid, you have to wake him up."

"Harkin, how far can I go before Curtis launches interceptors at me?" I asked.

"Uh… you have free reign over the sky as long as you don't fly over the airport," said Harkin. "Why?"

"I think I'll go for a little ride. I'll be back in an hour."

"Kid, I swear if you do this, I'm going to kick your ass to the other side of Wesson and back. I will…"

I cut off my radio and put my sun glasses back on. I was gently handling the control of the plane so that I could get a feel for it. When I was eight, Solo told me to think of a plane as an extension of myself and lean with it whenever I made a turn. I quickly got used to how the Mustang handled and I pushed the sick over to the left while I pressed down on the left rudder pedal. The Mustang instantly started a left bank and I turned to head for the northern part of Wesson. I could see everything from here, even the shore of the Lake Harwood. I could point out my school, my house, and every other point of interest around the city. _Stick down and to the right while applying right rudder_. The Mustang responded by going into a descending right bank towards the ground. I was at one thousand feet, going three hundred and twenty-eight miles an hour when I leveled out of the dive. I was flying over the suburban area of Wesson and I could see people looking up at me as I flew over them. Pulling back on the throttle, I pushed the stick forward and descended to five hundred feet. I made it a personal rule not to go any lower so that I didn't freak anyone out. I was now flying just under two hundred miles an hour and I could see kids in their back yards looking up at me. They were all waving and jumping around as they pointed me out to their parents. One kid in particular caught my attention. He was in doing yard work with his parents and I could see that he was helping his dad dig a hole. The kid looked up at me and began to wave both of his arms wildly into the air. I couldn't help but smile knowing I was making his day. I doubled back and flew over his house again and the kid went insane. He started jumping as he waved his shovel in the air. As I flew away from him, I rocked the wings to let him know that I saw him. _I know how that kid feels._ I continued my joyride around Wesson and I saw the city skyline towards my nine o' clock. The first thing that came to mind was to attempt to weave through the buildings and buzz the skyscrapers, but I knew I would get myself into a ton of trouble if I attempted to.

I changed my heading towards the east and noticed the park down below. It was always filled with people during the summer who just wanted to spend time with families and friends. People occupied the baseball fields and basketball courts from where I could see. I was still flying at five hundred feet and I could see even more people looking up at me. _ Let's have a little airshow._ I brought the stick over to the left and applied left rudder so that I made a wide loop around the park. I must've circled it about five times before I got everyone's attention. _Right, here we go._ I leveled out over the park and applied more power to the engine. I pulled back on the stick and I could feel the Mustang starting to pitch up, along with the G effects on my body. It wasn't anything I couldn't handle and I continued to put the plane through a vertical loop. When I came out of the loop, I cut back on the throttle and banked right so that I entered a climbing right turn. I then rolled further to the right so that I could pull into a descending left turn. At five hundred feet, I leveled out and proceeded to execute a four point roll. As I went through the roll, I could see Solo's hands raise above his head while we flew upside down. He was still unconscious and I figured he'd be alright. He might not like the fact that I took his plane for a joyride but I really didn't care. After I completed the four point roll, I snapped the stick back and to the left while I applied full left rudder, executing a high G barrel roll. I then slammed the throttle all the way forward and began to gain altitude. I was well above three thousand feet when I nosed over into a dive towards the ground. I was quickly approaching the Mustang's top speed of 437 mph. I knew I was capable of going faster than 450 mph before its structural integrity became compromised so I was careful not to overdo it. I pulled out of the dive just before I hit my hard deck, or minimal altitude limit, and rolled into a wide barrel roll.

As I came out of the maneuver, I banked to the left so that I could see the people down below. They had all stopped what they were doing to look up at me. A bunch of people who were standing were now sitting down in the grass as they watched my aerial acrobatics. A lot of kids were running around with their arms spread behind them. It seemed like I was making a lot of people happy today and I was totally okay with that. The maneuvers I pulled kept the attention of everyone down below. I would've loved to have waited until Sunday to fly, but this was good enough for me. I even stopped to take in the view. It was a beautiful day out. There were patches of clouds in the sky but it was clear for the most part. The sun was at its apex, giving me a clear view of everything. _Man, this is still extremely dull._ I pulled a few more maneuvers before I rocked my wings and peeled away from the park. I changed my heading back to the west and headed back towards Camp Curtis. I wished the flight lasted longer than five minutes but the runway quickly came into view. I turned my radio back on and I could hear Harkin trying to hail me over it.

"Kid, where did you go?" he shouted.

"I'm back over Camp Curtis, coming in for a landing, Where are you?"

"I've been trying to follow you for the past hour. I swear as soon as I see you, I'm going to…"

I quickly shut off the radio again as I circled the runway so that I could land. _Okay, landing procedure: Gear down, flaps at forty percent, and throttle at thirty percent._ As I was coming in I noticed that something was wrong. The Mustang kept veering to the right while I was descending onto the runway. _Oh crap!_ I raised the flaps and throttled back up so that I could abort the landing. The wind was blowing perpendicular to my flight path, causing the Mustang to veer off to the side. I wasn't confident enough to attempt a crosswind landing so I had to us the secondary runway and fly into the wind if I was going to land safely. I circled around towards the south side of the airfield and lined up with the runway. I lowered my flaps and cut power to the engine again and I was descending at a steady pace. My speed was at the edge of stalling but the oncoming wind kept the plane aloft long enough for me to make a soft landing. _ Touch down. _I came to a complete stop on the runway and proceeded to taxi over towards the hanger where Harkin parked his car when we first arrived. Once I was there, I unstrapped myself from my seat and rolled the canopy back so that I could get out. I was able to figure out how to turn off the engine after I got Solo out of his seat and placed him in the ground. He was still alive but he had a huge bump on the side of his head. He wasn't bleeding or anything and his eyes reacted to light when I pulled back his eye lids. I took a look around and saw that Harkin was nowhere to be seen. I pulled out my cell phone and called for an ambulance so that they could take care of Solo. While I was waiting, I climbed into the front seat of the plane. It felt way more different than sitting in the back. Everything felt more complete and I felt right at home, though it wasn't the same feeling I felt while I was flying. The moment ended when I saw the ambulance approaching in the pilot's rear view mirror. I sank down in the pilot's seat and peeked over the side to see everything that was going on. Solo had finally woken up and the paramedics concluded that he didn't have a concussion or anything, just a huge headache.

I was relieved that I didn't severely injure the guy but I knew he'd be mad at me. As the paramedics continued to talk with Solo, Harkin rolled up in his car. _I'm gonna get it._ It was clear to me that he was mad and now I had to suffer his wrath. He started to search for me around the hanger and when he couldn't find me, he called my cell phone. I never put the thing on silent and my ringtone gave my position away as I hid in the cockpit. Harkin climbed up onto the Mustang's wing and looked down on me inside the cockpit.

"Follow my lead," he yelled in German. _Umm… okay. _"What the hell is wrong with you?! You could've been killed!"

"I got the both of us back in one piece, didn't I?!" I yelled back.

"It doesn't matter! I told you to try and wake him up so that you could land, not so that you could take a fucking joyride around the city. What if something happened to you while you were out there?!"

"Oh, now you're worried? That didn't cross your mind while I was at the mercy of this fucking maniac?"

"Unlike you, he knew what the fuck he was doing the whole time."

"Well if that's true, then why did he pass out?"

"You knocked me out, you dumbass," shouted Solo.

"You tried to kill me!" I shouted.

"Shut the hell up, Kid. You're lucky to be alive," said Harkin.

The three of us all continued to argue over my free flight until a car pulled up alongside us and a man stepped out. He was the Major General in charge of all air operations on Camp Curtis and I guess he heard about what happened .Harkin and Solo both saluted him when he stepped out of his car and I hid behind them both. The General put both of them at ease and motioned for Harkin to get in his car. Harkin motion for me to follow him and I did.

"Who the hell is he?" the General asked.

"I'm his mentor, Sir. He's my responsibility," said Harkin.

The General gave me one look and scoffed. I doubted that he was the sympathetic kind of guy and I now started to realize that I might've gotten Harkin into a shit load of trouble. I thought he'd be furious at me but the fact that he told me to play along was a sign that he was looking out for me. We got into the General's car and headed for Building 1. It was the building where all the top brass worked. The General parked his car in his reserved parking spot and we all got out. Nothing was said as we all headed inside the building. The fact that the General himself came to get Harkin was a bit suspicious and it made me wonder why. He could've easily sent someone like an MP to get us. We continued through the building and I noticed how odd this place was. The receptionist's phone was ringing off the hook while I noticed a bunch of other officers just lounging around, talking with each other. _If I ever became an office, I pray to God that I don't end up sitting on my ass collecting the easiest paycheck in the world._ I was a very proactive guy. When thing's needed to get done, I did them. When work needed to be done, I couldn't sit still for long before I got restless. Eventually, we got to the General's office and Harkin told me to wait outside. I sat on the floor outside the General's office and leaned back against the wall. I could hear the General yelling at Harkin on the other side of the door. Apparently, the General grounded all aircraft so that Harkin could evaluate a potential candidate for something called The Mobius Initiative. _Is that what this was?_ _What's The Mobius Initiative?_ I continued to listen in as intently as I could to what was being said.

"I told you to keep the demonstration over the base, not half of Wesson! I don't know what your recruit did to Barlowe to get control of that aircraft, but you should've kept him under control. Where the fuck is he anyways?" demanded the General.

"He's waiting for me, Sir," said Harkin.

"Then you have exactly five minutes to get his sorry ass in front of me before I demote you to a Second Lieutenant, Harkin."

I heard foot step coming towards the door, followed by Harkin coming out of the office. He closed the door behind him and looked at me as I sat on the floor. Harkin knew I was listening in on them and he also knew I had questions. Harkin sighed and took a seat next to me before he started to talk.

"You got five minutes to ask me what questions you have, go," he said.

"Umm, okay. What was this test about?" I asked.

"The test was to see how capable you were of handling all the physics behind flying. From what you've demonstrated today, you know how to handle a plane. I thought you would've taken control of the plane sooner," said Harkin.

"Wait, you knew that would happen?" I asked.

"I was counting on you to struggle with Solo over the controls, but I didn't expect you to knock him out. I was hoping that you'd convince him to let you fly the plane over the base."

"You…. sneaky guy," I said trying to avoid an insult he didn't deserve.

"Yeah, next question?"

"What's The Mobius Initiative?"

"It's a volunteer program for ISAF. The independent Stated asked us, specifically the remaining US forces, for help in strengthening their air force. We haven't had any applicants so I thought you were my best bet."

"You're trying to get me into ISAF?" I asked.

"Kid, right now, I'm out of options on what to do. My superiors are growing desperate and they're looking for a way to end the war over in Usea before things get out of hand and at the rate the war is going, it's only a matter of time before Erusea rules over the entire continent," said Harkin.

"Why would it matter if they did?"

"That's classified. All you need to know is that ISAF needs pilots, and fast. You're the only one I know of who can do this."

"Why me," I asked. "Why choose me for this when you have all these other trained pilots here?"

"Because they don't see the point in fighting in a war that's not theirs," said Harkin. "No one outside my line of work doesn't realize the greater impact this war can have on the rest of the world."

I was surprised that Harkin was trying to get me into ISAF, but I knew he wasn't doing it because I asked for it. I really didn't care either. I just wanted to get away from Wesson. "Will the General let me join?"

"You leave him to me. Now, are you in or out?"

"I'm in," I said and I got up off the ground.

"Just one thing before we go in: whatever you learn from here on out, you have to promise me that you'll keep it together, alright?"

I nodded at Harkin as he got up off the ground. I followed him back into the General's office and stood in front of his desk. The General was looking out over the airfield as he glared out of his window. Harkin got his attention and the General turned to see me standing next to Harkin. All I could do was glare at the General as he looked at me. I already didn't like this guy. Judging from all of his office decorations, he seemed like the 'results at all cost' kind of guy.

"Is this some kind of joke? Who the hell is this?" asked the General.

"The only recruit for the initiative, Sir," said Harkin.

"Are you fucking dense? What the hell is this kid gonna do, cry until the war ends?"

"He's more than capable of learning the ropes fast enough before North Point is attacked."

"I'd be inclined to believe that if it didn't take him four years to graduate high school," scoffed the General. "And besides, what make you so confident that he'll even prove useful?"

"He's one of the surviving subjects from Project Pitbull," said Harkin.

The General paused and carefully looked me over. Pitbull was a secretly funded project known to only a handful of the highest military and government officials of an unspecified country. All records were sealed and most of the people who were involved were either dead or in jail.There wasn't any way he could've known for sure that I was part of Pitbull, or even know about the project at all unless he was there. As the General was studying me, I was studying him. His reaction suggested that he knew about Pitbull, but I didn't know how much he knew. The more he looked at me, the more I thought he looked familiar.

"Even if that were true, he still isn't a qualified pilot for me to allow it. All subjects from Pitbull were trained to be adaptable soldiers. Not pilots," sneered the General.

"We're all soldiers by trade, General. It seems like you've for gotten that yourself," said Harkin.

"Watch your mouth, Major!"

"Not this time, Sir. I need pilots to help out ISAF and all I need from you is to approve my recruit for training."

"Nothing you say is going to convince me to allow you to train this prepubescent jackass," said the General.

_You son of a bitch!_ I really wanted to kill the guy now but I couldn't. I was so close to the edge and it would take a lot to stop me if I went off. Harkin grabbed my shoulder and told me to call a cab so that I could go home. He was going to let the General have it and I wanted to see how it all went down. I let out a sigh of disappointment before I walked out of the General's office. I was about to call a cab but I didn't have enough cash on me for the whole way home. The nearest ATM was at the base's main gate. _Oh great._ I headed out of the building and began to walk alongside the road that led off of the base. The sun was beating down on me and I really wanted something to drink. Again, the closest place where I could get it was near the base's main gate.

I started to wish I had my van, but I hated to be seen in it. A guy like me driving a minivan was just embarrassing. _I need a new car. _A new car wasn't the only thing I needed. I needed a new saxophone because my current one was becoming a pain in the ass to take care of. I also needed new shoes, a better airsoft gun, and I needed to get the hell out of Wesson. I thought about all this after I bought a can of my favorite half and half iced tea and a box of gummy worms once I got off base. I mostly thought about why I needed to get out of Wesson. I've been stuck here for the majority of my life and I was sick of the same boring atmosphere of this place. Nothing ever happened after Harkin and I helped the DEA with their cleanup efforts around the city a couple years back. Sure, the Pitbull Reform Project had its perks and we were occasionally called upon, but spending the rest of my time in this town was the worst way anyone could spend their life. There was nothing meaningful going on here. The only people who were here were part of the military or an employee of some kind of business working for douche bag bosses, which is probably why everyone looked so pissed off all the time. The main part of the city was the most dangerous place to be. The crime rate for car theft, mugging, and prostitution was extremely high in this part of the city. The fact that I had to walk through here to get home was a pain in the ass because the last two times I did, a lot of people got hurt.

"Hey, Castillo," shouted a voice from an alley way I passed. _God dammit!_ I turned my head to look at the guy who called my name. It was the school bully from when I was a freshman in high school, Matt Weaver. He was a heavy set guy who trained to become a professional MMA fighter. He was the top fighter in the amateur league and he told all of his friends that I was his motivation. Too bad I wasn't the right kind of motivation. Matt was accompanied by four of his other friends who were in the same grade as I was. They always hung out in this alleyway because it was where the fight club was located. I was banned for breaking a guy's leg because he decided to pull a knife on me and everyone thought it was mine. But guess what, I didn't care. "Where're you going in such a hurry?"

"Home," I said apathetically.

"Aww, I'm hurt," said Matt as he placed both of his hand over his heart. "And here I am, ready to show my appreciation for helping me become the top fighter in my league."

"I'm glad I was able to help," I said and I turned to walk off.

"Whoa, not so fast, I still haven't shown you my appreciation," said Matt as he cracked his knuckles.

_Oh, great. _Matt and his friends all glared at me as they surrounded me. I quickly glanced at all of them and labeled them one through four. Matt was directly in front of me while his friends circled me at even intervals. I placed my candy in my pocket and chugged the rest of my drink. After I let out a good burp, I crushed the can in my hand and tossed it up into the air. Matt's number three man quickly rushed me from behind and swung a wild haymaker. I instinctively ducked and ran my fist into his gut as I spun around to confront him. I then hit him in the gut with my knee and tossed him over my shoulder at guy number one, who fell pretty hard. Guy number two tried to swing his leg into my gut but I caught it and countered by swiping his other leg out from under him by crouching down and swinging my left leg around. While I was still trying to stand up, guy number four tried to roll over on my back, but I rolled with him so that I landed on him. When we hit the ground, he grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back. I countered by elbowing him in his jaw, knocking him out. I tried to get up again but guy number one was about to punch me when I deflected his arm away and he tried to knee me in the head. I deflected his leg to my right and kicked him in the nuts when I was finally able to get up. Guy number two came running like he was going to tackle me. I had my back against a wall and waited for the perfect moment to make my move. Guy number two lunged at me like he was going to run his shoulder into my abdomen, but I dove out of the way so that he hit the wall, head first. I got back onto my feet so that I could face Matt. He didn't look scared at all. The biggest mistake Matt always made when we fought was that he always underestimated me. He didn't know that I've been doing this longer than he has. I looked at Matt with a blank expression and I could tell he was aggravated that his friends couldn't take care of me. He wanted to fight me but I wasn't going to give him the chance, so I walked away and he didn't follow me. _This is just one more reason why I need to get out of this place._

**1838hrs Mom's House**

I walked into the drive way just in time to see my mother get out of her car. She had just arrived back from work and was still dressed in her MCCUU, or Marine Corps Combat Utility Uniform. My mother was a Master Sergeant in the US Marines. Even though she was severely injured during the Curtis attack, she stayed in the military. She only received second and third degree burns on he hands and forearms along with some bone fractures that have long since healed. She was in charge of the supply school on Camp Curtis. All of the men and women under her command called her Mother Hen because she always looked out for everyone. That's one quality that I picked up from my mother and Major Harkin.

"Hey, mijo (Spanish for 'my son'), where've you been?" she asked.

"I just got back from base," I said.

"You walked the whole ten miles?"

"Yeah, my van is still impounded and I didn't have enough money for a cab."

"What were you doing on base?"

"Major Harkin tried to hook me up with a job and he asked me to leave so that he could talk to someone in private," I said.

"Oh, so what's the job?" asked my mother.

"Hopefully, I'll be working for the Major General of the Air Force."

"Doing what?"

"I don't know, and I really don't care right now. All I need is a job," I said.

"Well hopefully you get it," said my mother and we both walked inside the house.

My mother headed right for her bedroom so that she could take a shower while Amanda and I prepared homemade burgers for dinner. Amanda had spent all day with her friends and she proceeded to tell me about all of their drama and other girl related things. Like all other men, all I did was just smile and nod. My mother and sister loved my cooking. I had to teach myself while mom was deployed to Usea when I was fifteen and she couldn't take my sister and me with her. Neither of us was old enough to hold a job so mom would send us $200 a month for food and other necessities. I made do with what I had and I even experimented a little when it came to cooking. According to my sister, my steak was the best in the world. After the food was ready, we all sat down and ate.

"Today was a good day," said Amanda.

"Did you finally beat your three mile PR?" I asked.

"No, Katie and I were at the park with Jake and Christi when we saw this airplane flying overhead. I tried calling you like five times so you could see it," said Amanda to me.

_Oh, trust me, I was there_. I pulled out my phone to see that I had six missed calls and a load of text messages from Major Harkin. I couldn't hear or feel it over the sound and vibration of the plane's engine. Harkin was trying to get me to pick up my phone so that I could return the plane to the airfield because I could've been seen as a threat. If I had known that, I wouldn't have flown around Wesson like I did. However, if I didn't go for a ride in that plane, Harkin might not have considered putting my name forward for ISAF.

"Yeah, I was being interviewed for a job on base," I said.

"Wow, you work fast," said Amanda.

"Well, you know me."

"Yeah, I just hope you don't piss off the General while you're working for him," said my mother.

"No promises," I said.

We all finished up eating and we cleaned the kitchen. After that was out of the way, Amanda and I went to my room and played some Ridge Racer on my Play Station 2. She and I were extremely competitive when it came to racing games. We were in the middle of an extremely close race when my phone started to go off. I quickly paused the game and Amanda threw a fit because she thought I paused it because I was about to lose. I looked at the caller ID to see that it was Major Harkin and I quickly answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Kid, it's me."

"Hey, so how did it go?"

Harkin was quiet and I was rather nervous about what he was going to say. "Antonio, I need you to be completely honest with me when I ask you these next few questions, alright?"

"Yes, Sir," I said confidently.

"How badly do you want this?"

I shot a glance at Amanda who was looking at me, trying to get a read on what I was talking to Harkin about. I walked out of my room and headed for the back porch of my house so that no one could hear what I was saying. I didn't want them to know about what Harkin and I were up too.

"As much as I want to kill the guy who killed my father," I said.

"How far are you willing to go to make this happen?" asked Harkin.

"I'll do whatever it takes. I won't look back."

"How prepared are you for dealing with the consequences?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," I said.

"Alright," said Harkin. "Kid, I feel like I have to warn you. Once we go forward with this, there's no going back. I just want you to know that."

"I know, Sir."

"Alright then, meet me in the same spot tomorrow at noon. We'll go over everything from there," said Harkin and he hung up.

_I'm finally going to get what I want._ I felt a grim sense of satisfaction sweep over me knowing that I was actually going to be trained for all of this. My obsession for becoming a pilot was finally going to become a reality and I couldn't wait. I was leaning over the rail of the deck and I thought about what I would be doing soon. I didn't know how any of this was going to work or how others would react to it. Right now, it didn't matter. I was finally going to find my place in the sky, but I had no idea what was in store for me.


	3. Learning the ropes

**Chapter 2 – Learning the Ropes**

**Saturday, July 3, 2004, 1200hrs Camp Curtis, Osea**

I was standing by the memorial again, waiting for Major Harkin to show up so that we could get everything going. The base was more active than it was yesterday. I could see the ground crew working on aircraft on the flight line of the primary runway from where I was at. The planes they were working on were older than what I was used to seeing. The oldest plane I could see was an F-4 Phantom II. Back on Earth, those things were already in the scrap yards. They might not have been as advanced as the other planes that the Osean military were able to get their hands on, but while the US military wasn't part of Osea, they had to settle for what the US had left us with. The only advanced aircraft they had were a few F-22s but not even those were enough to do anything in a dogfight. The US Military was hoping that the Osean Government would hurry up and take them in because they weren't really doing anything anymore. I found it kind of stupid that the US Military was still recruiting, but they were volunteering for ISAF right off the bat. Then again, I wanted to do the same thing.

It wasn't long after I thought about this that Harkin had finally arrived to pick me up. I had no idea how this was all going to work, but I just had to trust Harkin. We were headed to the hospital which was on the other side of the base. Harkin said that I had to get a full physical to make sure that I was fit to fly. I couldn't think of anything that was wrong with me. I exercised regularly and ate healthy for the most part. The only thing I could think of that was wrong with me was my masochistic attitude, but it wasn't like it was going to hinder my ability to fly. The way I figured it was that they needed pilots for the war effort and they'd take whoever they could get. I wasn't really worried about the possibility of being turned away because I didn't think they would.

"I hear you haven't planned to do anything for the fourth of July," said Harkin, trying to start up a conversation.

"There's not much for me to do. Most of the guys I know are out of town," I replied.

"What ever happened to that one girlfriend of yours? Were you two still dating?"

"We were never dating. I doubt that she'd even want to after what the others told her about me."

"You seriously need to get a date," said Harkin with a smile.

I could only shake my head at the mention of his suggestion. I never had a girlfriend before and I never gave it much thought because I never saw the point of being in a relationship. Some of the girls that I did know admitted to having a crush on me, but I turned down all of them. There was no way they'd be able to face me once they got inside my head.

"I'll pass," I replied.

Harkin shrugged at my response and we continued driving towards the Hospital. I was looking out the window and saw the fourth of July decorations that lined the street. The fourth of July wasn't fully celebrated in Osea because it was an American Holiday. But in Wesson, it was a big deal. The fireworks display that Camp Curtis held could be seen from miles away. My mother, sister, and I would always watch them from the roof of our house. We lived on a hill that was only like five miles from the base and the city. I could go to the end of my street and see everything from there.

"So what comes next after the hospital?" I asked.

"After we're done there, we're going to the airfield," said Harkin.

"And then?"

"Then, we get ready for that cook out tomorrow." Harkin saw the look I gave him because I thought we were going to get as much done as fast as we could. "We can't just rush into everything, Kid. It'll take some time before you actually get to fly a plane again."

"And how long will that take?"

"Probably a month, maybe a month and a half depending on how well you do with everything else," said Harkin.

_Swell._

We arrived at the hospital and sat in the waiting room. The TV in the room was broadcasting the latest news about the war over in Usea. The Eruseans were moving deeper and deeper into the Independent States every day. The ISAF air force was too spread out to halt the enemy advance. By the looks of things, the front lines had been pushed just outside of the Range of those rail guns that provided the Eruseans with air superiority, but even then the allies were getting pushed back. Something told me that the Erusean Air Force had some really good pilots who were wreaking havoc over there. The reporter was able to play some footage of an air battle that occurred overhead and I was able to see that the Erusian pilots were flying Su-37 Terminators. When I saw this, I knew that ISAF was going to need a fifth generation aircraft with an experience pilot to take these guys down. If those guys were really good, then they wouldn't need to SU-37s to shoot down the allied planes. _These guys are just a bunch of pansies. _

When the news segment ended, I took a look around at some of the people here and I noticed a couple people who went to my school. I even saw one of Matt's friends, guy number two; walk by while he was wearing a neck brace. He saw me and gave me look like he was going to come after me again. I was honestly looking forward to it. I loved a good fight. Apart from that, another person I noticed in the waiting room was this girl who my friend, James, knew. In fact, I believed she was his girlfriend at one point. I didn't know anything about her other than that she was Latina. She had a rather round face with eyes that always seemed to smile gently through her glasses. Her long, straight, dark brown hair had blonde highlights that didn't seem to distort the natural color. She had a very appealing thick body, but her legs were the things that every guy noticed first. She played the flute in marching band and I never really paid much attention to her because she struck me as the kind of girl who tried too hard to stand out.

"Hey, she's cute. You should go talk to her," said Harkin when he saw me looking at that girl.

"I'm not interested in dating, Sir," I said.

"I didn't say anything about dating, Kid. I just suggested that you go talk to her."

"Why?"

"It'll help develop your social skills. Hell, you might even overcome your shyness."

"I'm not shy and besides, what am I supposed to say to her?" I asked.

"Just tell her 'hi'," said Harkin.

"I'll think about it," I said.

Not even a minute passed before I saw the girl look in my direction and walk towards me. I could feel Harkin smiling because he thought she was coming over to talk to me, but he was dead wrong. The girl walked passed us and made a beeline for a tall, light skinned black guy who had just walked out from the back hallway. I noticed it was another one of the guys who I fought with the other day, guy number one. His left arm was in a sling because I guess he dislocated his shoulder when he fell. He saw me and we exchanged glares for a second before I saw the girl ask him who I was. I could see their mouths moving as they talked about what had happened. From what I was reading from their lips, he tried to make himself look like a victim. The girl shot me an angry glance before she put her boyfriend's arm around her shoulder and walked off.

"I might need some context here," said Harkin.

"I was walking home yesterday and Matt tried to get his friends to fight me. That guy was just one of the four dumbasses who tried," I said.

"He's still out to get you?"

"Yeah, I guess that guy was that girl's boyfriend. What a dumbass," I muttered.

"I figured she might be the naïve type."

"And you thought I should talk to her?"

"For me, those are the easiest kind of women to talk to. You come off as smart and intellectual which kind of makes her want to know more about you," said Harkin.

Harkin taught me some profiling techniques while we waited and I caught on rather quickly. It basically centered on deductive reasoning and behaviorism. It was kind of fun to know this and I silently profiled a number of people in my mind until I was finally called back to do my physical. I was relieved to have a good looking female doctor. By the time I was done, the doctor had pretty much concluded that I was 'super human'. _If she only knew how I got this way._ After we were done, Harkin and I left the hospital and headed for the airfield. Camp Curtis was the only place where the US forces were allowed to train and operate. They only worked with the Osean Military when it was absolutely necessary. But the newly elected President of Osea, Vincent Harling, had made huge cuts in the defense budget as part of his Arms Reduction plan. The Osean Military was nothing more than an extremely large defense force while the US military unofficially became a reserve fighting force. The economic prosperity the country was going through showed no signs of impending war. The President used the surplus funds from the budget cuts to construct various projects that could benefit the whole planet in the future. Rumor had it that he was planning on a collaborative project with Yuktobania in Southeast Osea.

When we arrived at the airfield, the ground crews I saw earlier were still working on the planes. I got out of Harkin's car and followed him to a security gate where a couple of armed MPs check Harkin's ID before they let us pass. The guards were giving me the stink eye as I walked by them and followed Harkin onto the flight line. He led me towards one of the F-4 Phantom IIs that was being taken apart by a guy who had this goofy-ass smile on his face. He was an athletic looking Mexican dude who struck me as the kind of guy who didn't take things seriously. However, the one thing I noticed about this guy was that he was working alone on the plane. Usually there were four or more guys who were doing something on the other aircraft, but he was alone for some reason.

"Quezada, I thought I told you to stop working alone," yelled Harkin.

"You know how it is, Major. It takes a crew of five to get this thing ready in a couple days while it only takes me one," the guy yelled back.

"Regardless, I told you start working with the rest of your crew."

The guy jumped down from the plane's wing and started to head towards us. He grabbed a rag out of his back pocket and began to wipe off his hands before he shook Harkin's hand. "So who's this?" he asked referring to me.

"This is my apprentice, Antonio Castillo. Antonio, meet Ricardo Quezada."

"Just call me Rico," he said and we shook hands. "So what are you doing here?"

Harkin motioned us to follow him and we walked onto the flight line away from everyone so they couldn't hear us. "I got a job offer for you and I was hoping you'd accept it," said Harkin.

"Depends on what it is," said Rico.

"I'm putting together a team to help the ISAF war effort in Usea, specifically the air war."

"Hmm, have you gathered your pilots yet?"

"Just one, but he still has to go through flight training," said Harkin.

"You're going to train a green pilot? Wouldn't it be easier to just find a bunch of veterans to do this for you," said Rico.

"Because, Rico, there aren't any veteran pilots on Camp Curtis. Anyways, I'm looking for a crew chief and you're my go to guy. What do you say?"

"I'd like to meet your pilot first."

"Nice to meet you," I said.

The smile vanished from Rico's face for a brief second. "You're funny, you know that? Anyways, when do I get to meet him, Major," asked Rico.

"Why do you want to meet him?" asked Harkin.

"So I can judge if he's going to be one of those guys who's worth my time."

Harkin shot a glance at me and I shot a glance at Rico, who then shot a glance at Harkin. Harkin returned the look and then Rico looked back at me. I raised my eye brow at him, wondering what he thought about me. Rico and I just stared at each other, trying to figure out what the other was thinking. I guess the fact that Major Harkin wasn't kidding started to sink in and the goofy smile on Rico's face slowly started to vanish. I couldn't say that I was surprised to see that he was hesitant to find out that a seventeen year old kid was going to be a combat pilot, at least I hoped so. After a few minutes of exchanging awkward looks, Rico walked away without saying anything.

"I figured he say no," I said as we headed back towards the hanger.

"He didn't say 'no'," replied Harkin. "But, we'll worry about that later. Hop in."

We were passing by the F-4 when Harkin told me to 'Hop in'. "The plane," I asked.

"What else could I be talking about?"

I made my way towards the Phantom's nose and climbed into the front seat of the plane. I couldn't see over the instrument panel, but Harkin wasn't worried about that. He stood on the ladder pegs so that he could see inside the cockpit and he continued to point out everything that was necessary to start the plane, which was on the left side of the cockpit. He also walked me through the weapon systems, the flight controls, and instruments as well. He would tell me the proper steps for starting the engine, arming the weapons, regulating the cockpit pressure, the procedures for bailing out, and midair refueling. I was quick to pick up on all of it. It felt strange to be sitting in this cockpit. It was like I felt truly at home. The sense of comfort I felt was similar to that of a child being held by his/her mother. I still couldn't see over the instrument panel, but I didn't want to leave this plane. I grabbed the flight stick and throttle lever and I felt a huge sense of power come over me. I felt like I could take over the world with this old war bird.

"It feels good, doesn't it?" asked Harkin.

"Yeah, it sure does," I said with a slight smile.

"Kid, I have a serious question for you and I want you to be completely honest with me. Why do you really want to do this?"

I slumped back in the ejection seat and looked up at the sky while I gathered my thoughts. "There are a number of reasons why I want this. First off, I'm just tired of living every day the same way. There's got to be more to life than just waking up at six in the morning, eating breakfast, working at a dead end job, and dreaming about something that takes time. If I have the capability to do something worthwhile, why should I wait? I'm tired of not being able to do anything in my life right now. Secondly, I don't think that I should be alive. You know what those people did to me while I was in Pitbull and you know how I ended up there. I should've died over there so that way I wouldn't have needed this rehabilitation," I said pointing at the memorial across the way.

"But you didn't die," said Harkin. "Do you really want to die that badly?"

"If I wanted to die that badly, I would've already done it fifty times over. Ever since we came back from the Meili Mountains, I found some enjoyment in helping people at the expense of my own life. I don't know if I want this because I'm that much of a masochist, or if I'll make a difference over in Usea. If I die, I die. There's not much anyone can do about it when I'm gone. I wouldn't regret anything, really. But the main reason I want to do this, is because I'm hoping that I'll find 'Him'," I said.

Harkin knew I was talking about the man who killed my dad and two siblings. I never told him that the guy had green eyes. Ever since that day occurred, Harkin has been investigating the attack. He never told me how its progress was coming along. Maybe it was better that I didn't know. I'd probably just end up fooling myself into thinking that I would find that green-eye bastard when he was probably dead for all I knew. But if by some fluke that I did meet him in the air, I wouldn't stop trying to kill him until I was dead. I wanted that guy to myself when I kill him.

"I don't think you'll actually find him up there, Kid. I don't like your reasoning as to why you want to do this, but I understand where you're coming from. I know I told you this before, but I just want to make sure that you're aware. You have to be ready to deal with the consequences," said Harkin.

"I understand, sir. I doubt that there's anything else out there as traumatic as what I've already been through," I replied.

"That's where you're wrong. When I flew during the Gulf War back on Earth, I thought I'd seen it all, but I was proven wrong when I flew during the Belkan War. It doesn't matter how much training you got, or how strong you are, but when you strap up and step into a battle for the first time, it changes you forever. I'm not trying to scare you, Kid. It's just that I know you're not going to be fully ready for this."

I sat in the cockpit in silence and pondered Harkin's words. The more I thought about it, the more I started to realize that he might be right. When I tried to escape from Pitbull, I fought through a lot of people just so that I could escape that hell. I killed a number of people during that time, but I didn't feel any guilt about it until a few years ago. Even then, the guilt wasn't enough for me to feel bad about it. While I was working with the DEA, I never did anything except take part in a few raids, but I never really hurt anyone. The only real traumatic thing to ever happen to me was the attack on this base. I was still trying to recover from it all.

A few hours had passed since I met up with Harkin on the base. It was now 1709hrs and we decided to give this training a rest for the day. I got out of the Phantom and followed Harkin towards the hangers. The ground crews were just now starting to get off work and I knew that getting off the base was going to be hell. The roads were always congested because everyone was trying to get off base at the same time. Knowing people in the military, road rage was a common thing to deal with. Driving around Wesson was bad enough, but it sucked even worse with all the military personnel trying to rush from point A to point B. I couldn't remember a single day where I didn't see a car accident of some kind around the city. It was kind of sad the most car accidents I witnessed involved cars that were customized. I never understood why people would dump all this money into their cars when the closest race track around here was about eighty miles southwest of Wesson. Hell, if there was an underground car club in Wesson that I didn't know about, I would've bought myself something other than that stupid minivan and tried to join them.

**Sunday, July 4, 2004, 2023hrs Camp Curtis**

Major Harkin had talked me and my sister into coming to the base for a front row view of the fireworks display this year. My sister had brought a couple of her friends with her because she didn't want to come with just me and my mother. I would've invited one of my friends, who lived a few doors down from me, but he was still on vacation. In fact, Major Harkin was the only person I knew who was in town. We had just got done with a cook out at his house and we all headed towards the base. Even though she didn't show it, I could tell that Amanda was very anxious. Her friends, Katie and Sarah, didn't know about what happened to me and her eight years ago because she didn't want them to judge her. At least that's what she told me. She was only five when the attack came and she was diagnosed with PSTD up until she was twelve.

The field was already crowded with people who got here earlier. They just wanted a front row view of the fireworks. We found a spot next to the secondary runway and laid out our blankets on the ground. There were plenty of things to do while we waited. The base was courteous enough set up some basic carnival rides, concession stands, and carnival games. Amanda and her friends loaded up on lemonade and churros while I avoided all the junk food and wandered aimlessly around the whole field as everyone waited for the fireworks to start. I somehow managed to end up by the memorial when I started to wonder where I was and I decided to regroup with the rest of my family. Amanda and her friends soon joined us just minutes before the display started.

"Ugh, I shouldn't have drunk so much. Now I have to go to the bathroom," said Amanda.

"That's your fault for chugging your lemonade like that," teased Katie.

"You dared me to!"

"Yeah, but that didn't mean you had to," laughed Sarah.

"Whatever, you want to come with me?" asked Amanda.

"The fireworks are about to start, I don't want to miss it," said Katie and Sarah reasoned along similar lines. "Anthony, can you come with me?"

I noticed the look on Amanda's face when she asked me. It was like she came to some kind of startling realization about something. I had an idea of what was going through her head at the moment and I knew it would've meant a lot if I did go with her. I got up off the ground and led Amanda to the restroom. As I continued to lead her through the crowd, I started having flashbacks from the day Curtis was attacked. I didn't let it show that I was reliving parts of that day, but it was hard. I waited outside while Amanda did her business. The people here seemed oblivious to what happened here on the day of June 26, 1996. I didn't know what happened to the other people who were here that day, but I felt like they were no longer living in Wesson. When Amanda was done using the bathroom, she led the way back to our spot. She still seemed anxious, but so was I. I was tense and I felt myself breathing rapidly as we continued to walk. I looked towards the east side of the airfield and started to scan the sky for that green-eyed pilot's unusual looking plane, but I couldn't see anything in the dark. I then looked over towards the west side of the airfield, but I still couldn't see anything. All of a sudden, I heard a series of enormous booms. When I turned to look at Amanda, I saw that she was walking at a faster pace. She wanted to get back to our mother as quickly as she could and so did I. In the back of my mind though, I knew that we weren't under attack, but that didn't stop the thought of me finding my mother. As the explosions of the fireworks continued, Amanda and I were walking faster and faster. It wasn't until we heard a bunch of fireworks go off at the same time that we had entered a full on sprint through the crowd. We were pushing people out of the way as we ran. Amanda and I were instinctively ducking our heads as we heard each explosion and it was now clear that the both of us were reliving that day over again. I couldn't help but think about how Amanda really felt about coming here. We should've told Major Harkin 'no', even when he continued to ask. Everything in my head seemed so vivid and I wanted it all to stop, but we kept running. Amanda was almost at the memorial when she suddenly tripped and fell to the ground. She covered her head with her hands as she curled up in the fetal position. I had stopped just a couple feet away from her and I could only look down on her. I could tell that she was crying by the way her body was quivering. She was once again the scared little five year old girl I had saved. I knelt down beside her and picked her up so that I held her like a small child. I brought her close to my chest and began to rock back and forth.

"It's okay, I got you," I whispered into her ear.

I felt Amanda nod her head and she began to calm down. It was at that point that I began to feel very strange. My chest began to swell up and I started to breathe like I was trying to catch my breath. I also felt a lump starting to form in my throat and no matter how much I tried to swallow it, it just stayed there. I looked up at the fireworks at they lit up the sky, but everything was blurry. When I brought up my hand to rub my eyes, I felt drops of water on my cheeks. _What is this?_ I didn't know what was wrong with me and the more I tried to breathe, the more my eyes began to water. When I looked down at Amanda, I finally came to the conclusion that I was crying. It was strange because I didn't think I could cry nor could I remember the last time I did cry. _Why am I crying?_ Holding my sister, trying to comfort her felt really strange as well because I had never held her like this before. I've only seen her scared when the base was being bombed six years ago. Amanda was the first person to make me cry since God knows how long, but I didn't know why. When the attack started, I was running with her in an attempt to find our parents. But when we were knocked down by the shockwave of a bomb, I left her in the crater while I went to find the rest of our family. That's when it hit me. I realized that if I hadn't left Amanda alone in that crater, I wouldn't be who I was today. I wasn't going to leave her alone like this. I promised myself that I couldn't leave her alone when she was scared and I didn't think I could live with myself if I ever did again. _Not again. I won't leave you alone again._

"You're going to be okay," I said and Amanda wiped the tears from her eyes before she looked up at me.

"You're crying," said Amanda and I laughed a little.

"Shut up," I replied as I wiped my eyes and stood up. "Come on, let's find mom."

Amanda nodded and regained her composure before she got up and started to walk back towards our spot. When we finally joined the others, I noticed that Harkin was gone and I started to scan the area for him. I didn't let it bother me too much as I stood away from the others and leaned against one of the nearby bleachers.

"I saw that, Kid."

I turned my head to the left and saw Harkin standing next to me with a beer in his hand. "You saw what?"

"That touching moment with your sister; you were actually crying," he said.

"I had something in my eye," I said as I turned my attention back to the fireworks.

"Don't bullshit me, Kid. I kind of figured you'd both have a moment like this."

I looked at Harkin in surprised when I realized why he wanted me and my sister to come here. "You wanted my sister to relive that day so that you could get some kind of emotional response out of me?"

"It worked, didn't it?"

"I don't give a shit. You have no right to put Amanda, my sister, through that kind of emotional torment," I exclaimed.

"I'm well aware of that, Kid. But ask yourself this; why were you crying?"

"Because I realized I shouldn't have left her the first time," I snapped.

"Why did you leave her the first time?"

"So that way she didn't get hurt!"

"Why," asked Harkin.

"Because I…" I began but I paused in mid-sentence_._ "Because I love my sister," I said.

Harkin smiled at my answered. I didn't know why he wanted me to react the way I did but I now knew that he wanted me to react to my sister's break down. "Kid, remember you told me that you wouldn't regret anything if you died?" asked Harkin and I nodded. "If you died this very moment, would you still not regret a thing?"

I couldn't answer him because I felt like I'd become too soft before I went to war. I felt like I was in the process of losing what little killer instinct I had. It's been seven years since I actually killed someone when I escaped from Project Pitbull and I still didn't feel any remorse about it. I did what I had to do in order to survive and I wasn't thinking about it while I was doing it. If I was going to fight in this war, I was going to do it as the person the guys at Pitbull wanted me to be, a soulless killer.

"No," I said solemnly. Harkin's smile vanished when he heard my answer. "I'm just another grim reminder of that day. I want her to forget about it all together so that she doesn't have to be reminded about it every day. Even if I was gone, I knew she'd still be safe."

Harkin lowered his head in disappointment and walked away. I wish I hadn't lied to him like that, but I thought it be better if he kept thinking that I had no regrets. I was always afraid for my mother and my sister, but I didn't want anyone to know that. I was paranoid about one of my enemies using that against me. I almost killed a guy last year when he tried to mess with Amanda. If it wasn't for her, I'd be in jail. After everyone in school heard about what happened, they knew better than to mess with my family.

I turned my attention back on the fireworks display. They lit up the sky like Time Square on New Year's back on Earth. However, the constant explosions made it difficult for me to think about something other than the attack I lived through. I tried closing my eyes, but all I could see was the carnage I saw eight years ago. The lower left side of my back began hurting and I placed my hand over it, hoping that it would help, but it didn't. I felt myself becoming frustrated with these flashbacks I was going through and just wanted to get away from it all. My eyes were shut tight and I was tense to the point where I started to shake.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked a soft voice.

I snapped out of my thought process and returned to reality. I looked to my right to see a girl standing next to me with a worried look on her face. The illumination that the fireworks provided allowed me to see her face clearly. She was a girl my age that had long light brown hair and green eyes. She was a few inches shorter than me and she her body type suggested that she was a physically active kind of girl. If I wasn't keeping my hormones in check, I would've thought that she was beautiful.

"Me?" I asked.

"Yeah, are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, I just have a headache."

"Really, because it seemed like you were thinking about something," said the girl. "What's your name?"

"Castillo," I replied.

"Castillo, why does that name seem familiar," she asked.

"Do you believe in ghosts?" I asked and I shot a glance over at the memorial.

The girl slowly turned her head and when I knew she couldn't see out of the corner of her eye, I quickly climbed the bleacher I was leaning against and headed away from her. I didn't feel like talking to anyone and she seemed like the person who would try and make me spill my life story. When I looked back, I could see the girl looking for me. The look on her face suggested that I spooked her, but I just wanted to get away so that I didn't have to tell her what I was thinking about. I never let anyone know about my personal life, because in truth, I didn't really have one. All I ever did was wake up, work out, eat breakfast, and hone my fighting skills in my back yard. I never really did anything for fun. I might've gone to the movies or out to eat with some of my friends on occasion, but that was it. I rarely ever did anything for recreation. I never talked to anyone who wasn't a friend of mine, but even they didn't know a lot about me. The less they knew about me, the better. Just as I was about to take a seat on the bleachers, I felt a hand on my shoulder and I quickly grabbed whoever it was. A few years ago, I would've broken the person's arm, but not this time.

"You're not as clever as you think."

I turned to see the same girl from before sitting behind me. "Where'd you come from?"

"Do you believe in ghost?" she said.

"Depends what you mean by 'ghost'," I said.

"What else could I mean by 'ghost'?"

"The paranormal entity that's trapped in purgatory, the Yuktobanian Spec Ops unit, or an assassin I've heard rumors about."

"Well which one do you think I'm talking about?" she asked.

"I'll leave that up for you to decide," I said.

"Why can't you tell me yourself?"

"Because I don't talk to people I don't trust. You stealing my necklace won't get much else out of me," I said.

The girl held up her hand and dangled the gold chain that my mother had given to me when I was twelve. The chain held the amulet of St Christopher of the Catholic Church on it. Even though I was never baptized, I had always worn it. It was one of the few things that I've held dear to me. She had taken it off of me when she placed my hand on my shoulder, but she didn't know that I had taken something of hers in retaliation.

"I didn't think you'd notice until a lot later," said the girl.

"Oh, well are you going to give it back or do I have to keep your ring?" I asked.

"My ring?" asked the girl as she looked at her hand and noticed what I had taken. "Hmm, you might be cleverer than I thought."

"Keep thinking that. Now, may I have my necklace back," I said holding up the diamond ring I had taken off of her.

"How do I know you won't keep my ring once I give it back to you?"

"What would I do with a ring like this? It's not really worth anything to me and a pawn shop wouldn't give me enough money for me to buy anything that I'd like."

"That ring is worth more than your necklace," said the girl.

"Sentimentally it is, but the material value of it isn't worth that much," I said.

"What makes you so sure that it means that much to me?"

"You haven't tried to run away with my necklace yet."

The look on the girl's face made it apparent that I called her bluff. I held out my hand so that way she could give me my necklace back and I held the ring out to her. She was hesitant about giving me my necklace back and I readied myself if she tried anything funny. She dropped my necklace into my hand and I tossed her the ring. I made sure that I had everything before I turned around and walked down the bleachers.

"Hey, wait," called out the girl and I turned back towards her. "You know that you're not the only one who's been through the hell that you've suffered."

"Don't assume that you know me," I said and I walked away.

After I escaped from Project Pitbull, everyone I've ever encountered had attempted to figure me out at some point or another. Since I never opened up to anyone, everyone had their own theory about what my deal was. I've heard every rumor from people saying that I was mentally ill to me being from another planet, but I guess that was technically right because I was born on Earth. As I continued to walk away, I couldn't help but think about what that girl had said. _Was she another victim of the Curtis attack? Or was she another member of Project Pitbull? _ I've worked with other members of the project before but I've never gotten to know any of them. In fact, we were forbidden to interact with each other for some reason. I guess the project overseers knew how dangerous we were on our own and they were paranoid about us working together or fighting each other. That was my theory anyways. I thought about what she had said to the point where it started to eat away at me. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore. I had to know what she was talking about so I turned back to head for the bleachers again to look for that girl. When I got there, she was nowhere to be seen. I climbed to the top of the bleachers and carefully scanned the crowd for her. I must've made my way to both ends of the bleachers five times before I saw her heading to the parking lot. I jumped over the side and scaled down the support beams so that way I didn't lose sight of her again. When I started to follow her, the thought of her being a member of Pitbull began to grow inside my head. She'd know I was following her if I wasn't careful and she might even try to come after me. _Maybe she and I would get into a fight to the death!_ I smiled at the thought for some reason and I threw caution overboard as I followed her. Her body language soon showed that she was aware of my presence. She was walking at a rather quick pace with her head down and turned a little to the right. After a few second of walking like that, she started to jog and went around an SUV to block my line of sight. Just as I was about to run after the girl, two guys brushed passed me and follow her around the SUV. They seemed like they were in a rush to go after her and the looks on their faces was a tell-tale sign that their intentions weren't good. I ran after the guys in the hopes that I might be able to help this girl out but when I turned the corner, I saw both guys lying on the ground, writhing in pain with the girl standing over them. I had no idea what just happened and I felt myself tense up when the girl glared at me.

"What, did they recruit you into their little posse?"

"No, I was hoping to ask you something," I said.

"Stay away from her," groaned one of the guys on the ground.

"Shut the hell up, Dylan," said the girl.

"Boyfriend," I asked.

"Ex-boyfriend," she replied.

"I'm not her ex, we're just on a break," groaned Dylan.

"Right, anyways I was hoping to talk to you," I said to the girl.

"About what?" she asked.

"About what you said to me earlier, how 'I'm not the only one to have suffered that kind of hell'," I said. "What did you mean by that?"

The girl dug out her car keys out of her bag and pressed a button on her key chain to unlock her nearby car. She motioned for me to follow her as she got inside the driver's seat of her dark red 2004 Mustang GT. I sent my sister a text to tell mom that I was leaving because I wasn't feeling too well and that I'd see them at home. Once that was out of the way, I got into the car with the girl and we drove off, leaving her ex and his friend behind. I knew it was extremely odd for her to invite to come along and it was even stranger for me to actually go along with her, but I had to find out what she meant.

"So, you going to tell me what you meant?" I asked.

"What, we just can't go for a ride together?" she replied.

"That's not why I got in your car."

"Aren't you even the slightest bit curious as to where we're going or what my name is?"

"No," I said.

"Well I'm going to tell you anyways. My name's Miranda Stinson and like you, I survived the attack eight years ago," said Miranda.

"Is that all?"

"Yeah, I survived the attack and suffered from severe PTSD. It took a few years of therapy for me to recover after the attack and Pitbull. Now, it doesn't bother me so much."

_So, she does know about what I've gone through._ "What's Pitbull?" I asked and Miranda looked at me like she knew I was playing dumb.

"You know, Project Pitbull, where they did all that shit to us when we were kids?" said Miranda.

"Are you crazy or something?"

"You seriously don't know?" asked Miranda.

_Either she's just that dumb or she didn't remember that we weren't supposed to talk about it._ There was an awkward exchange of looks between us before she realized what I was trying to hint about. We weren't supposed to reveal the existence of the project under the penalty of death. We had to be extremely careful if we ever talked about it to anyone. As much as some of us wanted to talk about it, we couldn't because we were being watched at all times.

"Oh, right."

"Yeah, anyways I got what I needed. You can drop me off right here," I said.

"Seriously, I thought you wanted to ask you something," said Miranda.

"You already answered my question," I said.

"And that was…" she began and I gave her an annoyed look. "Oh…. Okay. Did you want me to drive you home?" asked Miranda.

"I can walk," I said.

"Where do you live?"

"Don't make me jump out of your car while it's moving."

"Oh come on! You're the first person I've met with a stick that far up your ass!" exclaimed Miranda. "Were they that hard on you?"

"I don't like talking about it," I said.

"Okay then, let me ask you this; why'd you get in my car?"

_That was a real good question._ All I wanted to know was if she was another test subject from Pitbull and I could've asked her before she invited me along with her. _Why did I get inside her car?_ My first thought was that she used my curiosity to trick me into going somewhere with her, but why would she take me anywhere with her if we had just met? Another thought that came into mind was that she was using me to make her ex jealous, which was the more likely possibility. And the last thing I thought was that I was somehow drawn to this girl.

"I don't know," I said.

"Yeah, you're just like me," said Miranda and I looked at her in confusion. "You do things without thinking or because you want to do something different in life. I told my mentor that I wanted to drop out of high school to join the military, but she wouldn't let me."

"That's…unfortunate."

"You say it like you've tried doing the same thing."

"I did do the same thing," I said.

"Well, what did your parents say?"

"My mother doesn't know I talked to my mentor about it."

"What about your dad?"

"He died," I said and Miranda understood right away. "Anyways my mentor said he understood where I was coming from but there's nothing he can do. So now, I'm stuck in this lame ass town until I graduate."

"You must not get out much. This town isn't lame at all. There's a ton of stuff to do here but most of it isn't exactly legal."

"I've only known about airsoft, so what else is there?"

"I think it be better if I showed you," said Miranda. "But that'll have to be some other time. Now where do you live?"

I frowned at the fact that she got her hooks into me. I was curious to the point to where I wanted Miranda to show me what I've been missing. I don't know why I wanted to find out what she knew or why I was curious. I still didn't know anything about this girl and for some reason, I wanted to find out. She's the only other member of Pitbull who I could talk to at this point. However, the thing that perplexed me the most was that she was more laid back than the other Pitbull inductees that I've met. _What's with this girl?_ I thought about it as I showed her the way back to my place. My paranoia started to act up because I thought she'd try to come and kill me in my sleep. That was just one of the effects that Pitbull had on me. It wasn't long before Miranda pulled into the driveway of my house.

"Well, here we are," said Miranda.

"Yeah, thanks for the ride," I replied as I opened the door.

"Hey," she said and I froze. She then pulled out her cell phone and handed it to me. "Put your number in there so I can come get you next time."

"Uh, sure." I said and I programed my number into it.

"Thanks, you know you never did tell me your first name."

I really didn't want to tell her it because I felt like she'd try and stalk me. _Come on, Castillo. Lighten the hell up. _"Antonio," I said.

"Well, Antonio, I look forward to seeing you soon," said Miranda and she drove pulled out of the drive way after I closed the door.

_She's looking forward to seeing me again? _I felt like I knew where this whole thing was going and she wasn't going to want to see me after next time. But for some reason, I kind of wanted to see her again.


	4. First Time for Everything

**Chapter 3 – First Time for Everything**

**Wednesday, July 7 0800hrs, Camp Curtis**

For the past three days, I met Harkin over by the memorial so that way we could continue my training. We've been going over the actual science of flying an aircraft. He taught me that I had to take in the weather conditions, conservation of energy, and the physical effects flying has on the human body. Yesterday, I had to take a test while I was placed in a pressure chamber to see if I could still function with little oxygen. Then, I had to take a ride in a centrifuge to test how many Gs I could tolerate without a G suit. I found out that I could withstand seven Gs for two minutes before I blacked out. We were supposed to continue with this training after I met Harkin, but instead of meeting him by the memorial, I had to meet with him at building 1 because he needed to talk with the General for some reason. I was sitting by the door outside the General's office as they conversed. The first few minutes, they were talking normally. But now, they were yelling at each other and I could hear them clearly.

"Sir, he's not ready yet. I still need to walk him through the basics. Otherwise he'll die out there," said Harkin.

"It can't wait any longer, Major. ISAF him and the other volunteers by the deadline or else the war will be lost," replied the General.

_Other volunteers, there are more of us?_

"I understand, but he's only had a few days to familiarize himself with everything. He…"

"I'm not going to argue about this any longer, Harkin! Either you do what I tell you or ISAF pulls the plug on this initiative!"

_What are they talking about? _There was a moment of silence before I heard them start to talk normally. I couldn't hear what they were saying but I knew they were talking about me. There were too many people walking up and down the hallway for me to subtly eavesdrop on them, unless I decided to crawl through the air ducts after I disabled the security systems. But that was too much work. Anyways, Major Harkin finally came out of the General's office and he didn't look too happy, but he didn't look mad either. It was more of like a look of uncertainty if anything else, but I didn't know why. He didn't say anything as I followed him out of the building and into his car. I wanted to ask him what was wrong but I got the vibe he gave off suggested that it was something that I didn't want to hear. We drove towards the secondary runway where we saw someone working on a T-45 Goshawk on the flight line. The scowl on Harkin's face grew as we got out of the car and headed into one of the hangers. From here, Harkin led me to the locker room and told me to take a seat on one of the benches after he asked me for my shoe size, what size gloves I wear, and what my height was. I waited for about five minutes before Harkin came back and handed me a flight suit, glove, and boots. _Am I going flying today?_ After Harkin gave me my things he left me alone again so that I could get changed.

"Kid, tell your mother that you'll be coming home late tonight," said Harkin from the other side of the room.

I was still unsure if I was going flying but I did what he said and sent a text to my mother telling her that my job training was going to keep me all night and that Major Harkin would be here with me. She responded within seconds and told me that she'd save me a plate for dinner. _As long as it's not her meat loaf, then I'm glad._ I striped down to my underwear and t-shirt and got dressed into my flight suit and boots. I didn't like the feeling of something covering up my hands so I put the gloves in my pocket and looked at myself in the locker room's mirror. _Damn, I look good._ Even though I never really cared about my own image, I actually thought I looked like a badass in this flight suit, even with my almost shoulder-length hair. Harkin's been bugging me since the beginning of the year to get it cut but I didn't want to because I just wanted to annoy him.

"You could actually pass for a nugget fresh out of flight school if you cut that mop of your," said Harkin.

I looked at him in the mirror and saw that he was dressed in a flight suit as well. Harkin was kind of egotistical but he wasn't full of himself. Some of his younger female coworkers kept referring to him as a Silver Fox, whatever that meant. For a forty year old guy, Harkin looked like he was in his early thirties. His fierce brown eyes were accented by his graying brown hair and he was still in good shape.

"I like my hair just the way it is," I replied.

"It'd be easier to take care of if you got it gut. That way you wouldn't have to waste all that time in the morning trying to make it look sleek."

"I wear my beanie all the time. It saves me from dealing with it."

Harkin rolled his eyes and motioned for me to follow him again. He led me to a large walk-in closet that had a bunch of white flight helmets and G-suits in them and he told me to pick a set that fit. I walked into the closet and tried on a few flight helmets until I found the perfect one. The thing fit nicely around my head and the visor had just the right amount of tint. The G-suit and parachute harness on the other hand were uncomfortable as all hell. When I stood up, the harness straps that wrapped around my legs rode up and hugged my naughty bits to the point where I couldn't help but talk in a bit of a higher pitched voice. Harkin told me that it took some getting used to and that another one of the volunteers he recently recruited wouldn't have that problem. Either the person he was talking about was a girl or it was a guy who's been castrated. Regardless of which one it was, the person was going to be a hell of a lot more comfortable than I was. Harkin got dressed into his flight gear as I was still getting ready. He still had that look of uncertainty on his face and it still made me worry about him.

"Alright, Kid, the stuff you're wearing right now is going to be your responsibility from now on. You can decorate the helmet anyway you want, but you have to maintain everything else" said Harkin.

I looked over the helmet carefully before I shrugged and followed Major Harkin out the door and onto the flight line. "So, what are we doing today?" I asked nervously.

"Today, I was ordered to take you on your first hop in a jet."

"Why do you make it seem like you're nervous about this?"

"It's a long story, Kid."

"Well, we're going flying for a while. Can't you tell me then?"

"I'd rather not talk about it. Anyways, hop in the front seat."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was ecstatic over the fact that I was actually going to get my hands on an actual jet and that I was going flying with my mentor. I had never seen him fly but some of his coworkers that I've spoken to said that he was the best at what he did. _There's always someone better._ I was approaching the T-45 when I saw the two guys from earlier working on it come from around the other side. It was Solo and Rico, the jet mechanic I met the other day. They had been working together to try and prepare for our hop while Harkin and I got ready. Solo still didn't seem too happy to see me after what happened last time and I honestly didn't care. He should've been happy that I got his plane back in one piece. Rico, on the other hand, was clearly asking himself what he was doing here. I guess Harkin was able to convince him to join the initiative but Rico still seemed weary of me.

"Is she all ready to go, Staff Sergeant?" asked Harkin.

"Yeah, she's ready," replied Rico. "Now do me a favor, bring this bird back in one piece, alright?"

"No promises," said Harkin as he put on his flight helmet and climbed into the back seat.

I exchanged a couple of looks with the others before I looked down at my helmet and put it on. _This is actually happening._ I climbed into the front seat, strapped myself in, and waited for Harkin to give me the go-ahead. I still had to wait for Rico and Solo to clear the area before I could turn on the engines, but I did the preflight and comm checks in the meantime. When I looked to the sky, I saw that there were cumulonimbus clouds forming to the west. The weather report for the day said that it was supposed to rain heavily on Wesson later on in the day. Other than that, I had a clear view of the sky. _Hopefully we make it back before the storm rolls in._

"Alright, she's all set to go," said Rico as he and Solo cleared the area.

"Alright Kid, start her up," said Harkin.

_Righteous!_ I was going over everything in my head as I started flipping the correct switches in the specific order. It wasn't until I activated the turbines that my excitement got the better of me. Harkin's uncertain expression turned into a look of fear as I laughed maniacally. Harkin nervously told me to start taxiing onto the runway so that we could prepare for takeoff. I pushed the throttle forward and gently released the brakes. The T-45 started to move forward as I guided it with the rudder pedals. The controls were different than the F-4 that Harkin had me work with for the past two days but overall, they were the same. Other than the difference in the controls, I knew that this plane would handle differently than the Mustang I flew and the plane I'd start with when I joined ISAF. When we arrived at the end of the runway, I rolled the stick around to make sure that the ailerons and stabilizers were working properly. Once everything checked out, I looked in my rearview mirror to see Harkin nod at me, telling me to go ahead. _Here we go!_ I slowly pushed the throttle forward and the T-45 began to move forward. The speedometer then began to climb and within seconds, we were going over 135mph and our speed only continued to grow. We were three-quarters down the runway before I began to pull back on the stick. The plane didn't respond right away but I slowly started to feel nose pitch upward, followed by the plane lifting off the ground.

"I got control of her, Kid. I don't want you crashing this thing before we even have a chance to get started," said Harkin over the radio.

I let go of the controls as we continued to gain altitude and changed our heading for the Reyes Mountains towards the west. The mountains over looked the rest Wesson and all pilots at Camp Curtis were forbidden to fly through them. We could easily avoid flying through them, but the fact that Harkin wasn't gaining any more altitude suggested that we were going to fly right through them. I wanted to try and take over control but I got the feeling that I'd end up killing ourselves if I did.

"We're not seriously going to fly through the mountains, are we, Major?" I asked.

"It's been a while, Kid. I need to get back into my grove," said Harkin.

"And the best way for you to do that is to fly through hazardous terrain?"

"Just trust me, alright? We'll be okay."

It was forbidden to fly through these mountains for a reason. The valleys funneled the wind through the mountains and it caused turbulence for aircraft that tried flying through here. A couple of years back, a civilian tried flying through here to impress his girlfriend and they both crashed two minutes into the flight because the wind forced his plane into the cliff face. I knew Harkin was more experienced but even this was a challenging feat for a pilot of his proficiency. I took a deep breath before Harkin flew the T-45 through the valley. Harkin was grinning as he put on his oxygen mask and I nervously put mine on. The air smelled funny as it flowed through the hose, but I figured that should be the least of my worries. We were about two hundred yards away from the valley when we started to feel our plane bounce around a little and it continued to get worse the closer we got.

"Here we go, Kid," said Harkin as he pushed the throttle forward.

The T-45 seemed to start trembling instead of bouncing. I was gripping my seat for dear life and I closed my eyes tightly as we enter the valley. The landscape was moving by too fast for me to make sense of my surroundings. The turbulence wasn't helping any either. Harkin wasn't having any trouble as he weaved through the mountains. I was shifting around in my harness as Harkin jerked the plane left and right. My anxiety was starting to grow because I didn't have control of the plane. I wanted to take over, but if I did, I'd probably kill us. The cliff faces were close enough to the canopy that I could almost reach out and touch them. When I looked in the rearview mirror, I could see that Harkin was fully concentrated on his flying. I didn't look at him for long because he proceeded to roll over a ridge that he narrowly hit. After he came out of the roll, Harkin started weaving through the mountains again. I was growing more nauseous the further we went and I had to fight the feeling of throwing up. The last thing I wanted was to breath in the smell of my half-digested breakfast if I vomited inside my oxygen mask.

"Major, how much longer?" I asked, but he didn't reply. "Please, Nathan, loosen up!"

I continued to try and get Harkin's attention but he wasn't listening to me. I was fighting a losing battle with physics and bodily functions. Then, as if out of nowhere, I started to hear Harkin laughing. My anxiety was now at an all-time high and I was breathing rapidly and heavily. I started to feel extremely light headed while the sweat from my brow started to trickle down my face. My hands were shaking uncontrollably and my heart felt like it was about to explode. I closed my eyes, hoping that I would wake up to see that this was all just a dream. A few seconds seemed to pass before I heard Harkin yell over the radio.

"She's all yours, Kid!"

_What the hell?! _I didn't even have time to think about what he said any further and I quickly grabbed the flight stick and throttle lever as I placed both of my feet on the rudder pedals. When I looked ahead, I saw the side of the side of a mountain quickly filling up the HUD and out of sheer desperation, I snapped the stick over to the right while I applied right rudder. I had just narrowly missed the side of the mountain and but now I had another mountain in front of me. _Oh shit!_ I snapped the stick to the left and applied left rudder before I slammed into it, but the valley led to a dead end and I started to panic. My fear was short lived when I realized that we weren't flying through a tunnel and I pulled back on the stick to go over the mountain. I continued to gain altitude until we were two thousand feet above them. We were still headed west, traveling at a speed of 347mph. I let go of the controls, slouched back in my seat, and took a deep breath so that I could try to relax. It had only been an hour and a half since I arrived at Camp Curtis and already I was flying a plane. I know I asked for this but I felt like we were moving too fast with this initiative. There still a bunch of other things a pilot had to go through before he actually got his hands on a plane and Harkin just skipped all of it.

"I thought you were going to pull us out of that valley sooner, Kid," said Harkin and I gave him an annoyed look when I looked at him in my rear view mirror. "How are you feeling so far?"

"I'm so close to throwing up right now," I said as I pulled off my oxygen mask.

"Here use this," said Harkin and he threw me an air sickness bag.

I couldn't hold it any longer. As soon as I got the bag open, I started blowing chunks. Harkin was laughing as he heard me regurgitating over the radio and I practically filled the entire bag up the omelet I had for breakfast. I quickly pulled out the canteen I had on one of the pouches I had in my flight suit and I washed out my mouth to get rid of the foul aftertaste. When all that was over, I tied up the bag, set it under my seat, and relaxed as I took in the view of everything. Wesson was slowly disappearing as we continued to fly west. For some reason though, the sight of my hometown fading off in the distance felt bittersweet. It didn't feel like when I was going off to another one of Pitbull's reform programs or summer camp. I was deep in the thought of leaving Wesson when I felt the plane slowly start to bank left. I looked at the compass and saw that we were now bearing vector 250. After looking at my map I saw that the only city in that general direction was the city of Macon, which was on the coast of the Bennion Sea. The cities of Strangereal were still under development so most of the cities didn't have interstate highways to connect them to each other. Air travel was the only way to travel between more cities and there was a lot of land here that was still left to be claimed by anyone.

"Where are we going, Sir," I asked.

"What's the only city that's in this general direction?" replied Harkin.

"There's only Macon. Are we going over there?"

"Yeah, I need to talk to an old friend of mine. While I'm busy with that, you can relax on the beach and take in the view. If you know what I mean."

I've heard things about Macon from the media and every guy who wasn't me would love to live in a place like that. It was a popular vacation destination in central Osea but it wasn't as popular as this place called Winchester. Macon was knows mainly for its beaches and night life. Harkin would always tell me that he wanted to retire there. I didn't ask him who he needed to talk to because I figured it was someone who wouldn't matter to me. However, the thing that caught my attention was the fact that he didn't seem nervous about flying anymore. I knew he wasn't nervous about me flying because all I did was take off so why would he be nervous about that? He was nervous about something else and for some reason I had a feeling that it had something to do with the guy Harkin wanted to see. Macon was two hours away and I decided to take a nap while until we got there, hoping that the lingering feeling of nausea would go away.

**1137hrs, Macon Osea**

The sudden jolt of the wheels coming into contact with the ground jolted me awake. We had landed at the Osean Marine air station at Camp Jarratt and the base commander was nice enough to allow us permission to land. Even though the remnants of the US forces were allied with the Osean Military, there was a lot of tension between them mainly because of the history between the two. Originally, the US forces were seen as type of police force that tried ruling over Osea when they declared their independence from Earth. Anyways, we taxied onto the flight line and parked near one of the hangers close to the security gates. I felt out of place here because F-15s and F-22s were parked on the flight line. We both got a bunch of sideways looks from the other pilots but most of them were geared towards me. A seventeen year old kid who really needed a haircut, wearing a flight suit was something to see.

"I feel so out of place right now, Sir," I whispered.

"Well maybe of you got your damn hair cut then maybe they wouldn't look at you like that," replied Harkin.

"But they still know I'm a kid."

"That doesn't mean anything. When I was your age, I was already at the top of my class in boot camp. You already know that these guys don't measure up to you in anyway."

I shrugged at Harkin's comment because I didn't think that I was better than any of the other men on this base. These guys were trained pilots who've probably seen more things than I have while flying. We continued to walk off the flight line and past the hangers until we got to a parking lot. We were still dressed in our flight gear because we had nowhere to put our things, nor did we have a change of clothes. I was about to ask Harkin why we were in the parking lot when he approached one of the cars and ran his fist into the window of one of the cars and unlocked it.

"Are you nuts?!" I exclaimed.

"Yes I am!" laughed Harkin. "Plus it's not like the guy didn't have insurance."

"You don't even know whose car this is and now you're going to get five-o on our asses!" I protested.

"Hmm, I don't think so. This car belongs to a Major I know and that asshole had this coming for quite some time. Get in," said Harkin.

"Hell no, I'm not going to jail for grand theft auto!"

"Kid, quit being a bitch and get in the fucking car!"

Harkin really hit one of my nerve and out of sheer spite, I got into the car. It was a red 2002 Chevy Cobalt that looked like it had been fitted with a body kit. The rims on it were customized too and I realized that whoever owned this car had dumped a bunch of money into it. The engine sounded like it had some work done to it as well. I honestly thought cars like this were really unnecessary. It wasn't like anyone could race them unless they had like a race track around here. In Wesson, cars like this were common, but there wasn't any use in using them. Anyways, Harkin began to drive all over the city and I still had no idea where we were going. We got some more sideways looks when we had to stop at traffic lights because people saw that we were still wearing our flight gear. Harkin didn't bother taking off his flight helmet so I imagined people thought that was particularly odd. The only thing I could do was to hide behind the aviators that Solo had given me.

"Can we please go find a change of clothes, Sir?" I asked.

"What, you don't want people to know that you're a pilot?" said Harkin

"Isn't my position in the Mobius initiative supposed to be classified?"

Harkin gave me an annoyed look before he made a sudden left turn down a street and came to a sudden stop in front of the first clothing store he saw. Something was really bugging me about Harkin because he was acting way different than usual. I'd never seen him like this before and it perplexed the hell out of me to the point that I wanted to see what he would do next. I took off the flight vest and G suit before I headed inside. Everyone in the store was looking at us funny except for a couple of girls who were around my age. They just couldn't seem to stop ogling me. I wasn't paying attention to them as I got a pair of beige cargo shorts, a white t-shirt, and a pair socks and shoes along with sling bag so that I could carry my flight suit and boots. _Good thing I brought my wallet._ The money I was spending ever since I quit my job was starting to add up and I doubted that I could keep this up for long.

"Why were you and the other guy wearing those jump suits?" asked the cashier.

I couldn't tell her that what was really going on so I had to come up with a lie. "I just earned my pilot's license and I left home without a change of clothes," I said.

"Oh wow, where did you fly in from?"

"Pike," I said.

"Really, I have a friend who lives down there and her sister is a first officer for an airline company. She's only twenty one and she's already making a career out of flying."

_I don't give a shit lady. _"I bet she's happy with her life."

"Yeah, was that your father?"

"No, he's my instructor and I…"

I couldn't even finish my sentence before I heard the screech of car tires and I turned my head to see Harkin peel out of the parking lot and drive off without me. _Are you fucking serious?!_ I didn't even bother running after him because I knew I wouldn't catch him. The cashier looked at me like she wanted to say something but I quickly paid for my things, put my flight suit and boots in the bag, and left the building. I was in a strange place and I didn't have the slightest idea of where I should go next. _Ok, think. Where Harkin go in a place like this?_ I realized that my attempts to find Harkin would be hopeless because he loved places like this and because he was a ladies man. My first thought was to head to the beach and see if he was down there. I didn't have any other options so that's where I headed for first. The weather was clear here, like when tropical getaways are usually advertised as. The temperature was in the high seventies and a nice breeze was constantly blowing. The people around here were all dressed in bathing suits and headed to the beach as well. I hated being in crowds because I made it that much harder to pay attention to my surroundings, but I was still able to stay alert to my surroundings. I always kept my eyes and ears open because I was always paranoid that someone was always out to get me. I had Project Pitbull to thank for that. My eyes were frantically scanning the crowd for Harkin but I couldn't see anyone other than the same people over and over. I pressed on toward the beach and I arrived there just as my watch chimed at noon. I was at the bar of one of the surf shacks, looking out towards the beach. Everyone was in their bathing suit, soaking in the sun. I got a few suggestive looks from some of the girls that passed by but I wasn't fully paying attention to them because I was looking for Harkin. Three hours passed and I thought I would've found him by now. I was getting frustrated and I ran my fingers through my hair as I leaned over bar. _Harkin had to be here. This was his thing!_

"What are you doing here?" asked a very familiar voice.

_God, why me? I know I said I was looking forward to seeing her again, but I didn't mean this soon_ I looked to my right to see the person I least expected to see here. She was wearing a white bikini with a matching sarong around her waist and sandals with ankle straps. I knew this wasn't a coincidence because she just seemed to be everywhere I was. "Wondering where the hell my mentor is and why you're here," I said.

"You too, eh?" said Miranda. "How did you get here?"

"How else could I get here?" I said.

"Is that your flight suit in the bag?"

The fact that she asked that I had a flight suit in my bag revealed that she got here the exact same way I did. It also raised the question as to what she and her mentor were doing here. _Was she also part of the Mobius initiative or did her mentor decide to fly her here?_ "Flight suit," I asked. "It's a change of clothes I have to wear for a formal gathering later on," I said.

"Hmm, I bet you'd look even better if…"

"Don't even say it. I've heard it from everyone else I know so spare me," I said

"You know, I bet if you stood up more, that stick up your ass might actually find its way out of you," said Miranda.

"If you don't like it, then go away," I said sarcastically.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily."

"But that implies that I can still get rid of you, so should I keep trying?"

"Why do you work so hard to keep others away?"

"Why do you want to know?" I asked.

"You're the first person I've met who takes everything too seriously. I mean, you keep to yourself because it seems like you think that you're vulnerable if you show your soft side. I saw that moment you and your sister had the other night and there's nothing wrong with that. Things like that are what makes us human and after you showed that bit of emotion, I knew for sure that there's a bit of humanity deep down inside of you," said Miranda.

"I am human. I just choose not to show it to everyone."

"Why not," she asked.

"My shrink says it's the Hedgehog's dilemma when it's actually something entirely different," I said.

"Well, what is it?"

"My own reasons," I said trying to dodge the question.

"Okay, aren't you going to tell me?"

"I hardly know you. Why would I tell you anything meaningful about myself?"

"Because, I know you like me," teased Miranda.

"What makes you so sure?"

"You haven't tried running away yet."

"I was getting there. You can't rush me," I said as I slung my bag across my back and put on my sunglasses before I turned to leave. "By the way, you really need to work on tying up your bikini top properly."

I could hear Miranda shriek as I walked away and I heard her call me an asshole because I guess she thought I undid her knot. I was giggling to myself because I caught a glimpse of them and the view was nice. _I'm such an asshole, but I don't care._ My little moment of deviousness didn't last long before I heard a glass bottle hurtling towards me and I side stepped to avoid it.

"Where are you going?" shouted Miranda.

"I'm going to find my mentor," I hollered back.

"Well wait for me. I'll help," said Miranda.

_She cannot be serious!_ I continued to walk away while Miranda tried to retie her bikini so that I could lose her. She was trying hard to get close to me and I got the feeling that she had a reason other than wanting to help me. She was able to get a little bit out of me but it was obvious that she wanted more. I started to run in the hopes that I would lose Miranda but she was hot on my trail.

"Hey, will you wait up?!"

_Alright, let's see how badly you want to know me._ I was in a full on sprint as I headed into town in an attempt to lose Miranda. The surrounding buildings were short enough for me to scale up the side of the walls and they were spaced enough apart that I could jump from rooftop to rooftop. I looked behind me to see Miranda gaining on me. It was surprising to see that she was able to run in those shoes of hers. _Let's see just how good she really is._ I headed into the first alleyway I saw and quickly took in my surroundings. There was a seven foot tall fence dead ahead with a metal dumpster right in front of it. I ran towards the dumpster and ran along the wall it was set against and was able to get on top of the dumpster with ease. Once I was on top of it, I kept running to maintain my speed and vaulted over the fence. I rolled as soon as I hit the ground to soften my landing and I looked back to see Miranda still coming towards me with no signs of stopping. Instead of replicating what I did, she jumped towards the dumpster and vaulted on top of it so that she was able to swan dive over the fence. _You've got to be kidding me!_ I continued to run down the alleyway to see more obstacles I could use to lose Miranda. There was a truck that was backed up onto a loading dock with an awning overhead that wasn't that much higher than the building's roof. I jump onto the front of the truck and continued to run up it until I was on top of the building. From there, I continued to run along the roof tops and I could hear Miranda right behind me. To my left, there was a drop that led to a building that was being renovated across the street. I turned towards it and ran for it. There was an open window that was a down one story and with enough speed, I knew I could make the jump. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me and jumped as far as I could. I kept my body straight as I dove for the window and when my hands came in contact with the window sill, I brought my legs between my arms and entered through the window. I didn't bother slowing down because I figured Miranda was still behind me. I had landed on a scaffold that was twenty feet off the ground with another scaffold under the one I was on that ran perpendicular to the one above it.

I slide on my side so that when I went off the edge of the scaffold, I was able to grab the edge and lower myself down. From here, there was another window above a higher scaffold that was about six feet away from it. I ran down the scaffold that I was on and jumped for the scaffolds outer beam and used the momentum from my run to swing up and over so that I landed on top of the scaffold and then I proceeded to jump through the window. However, when I jumped out the window, there was only an open park down below and I quickly grabbed the edge of the window before it was too late. I was lucky that there was a drain pipe on the side of the building and I used that to scale down the side of the building. I could hear Miranda inside of the building that I had just exited. Running through the park would make it easier for her to spot me so I avoided that place all together. My only other option was to run through a bazar that had stands lining the whole way. The place was crowded so I figured that I could lose her in there, but then I remembered that she was part of Project Pitbull too. She would find me with no problem. I wasn't running as I made my way down the bazar and the crowd. I inconspicuously snatched a hair tie from one of the first women I saw and tied up my hair. It was long enough for me to pull back into a small ponytail and I figured I'd be harder to spot in the crowd if I changed my appearance. Everyone in the bazar was shopping in their bathing suits and I actually felt out of place. I took of my shirt and a bunch of girls actually took notice. _Yeah ladies, I know I got the physic that you'd drool over but I'm an asshole._ I started to become insecure of the two scars I had on my back and I really wanted to put my shirt back on but I just pressed on. As much as I wanted to get away from Miranda, that wasn't my main goal. I still had to find Harkin, where ever he was. The fact that he ditched me really started to piss me off the more I thought about it.

"Oh my God, those shoes are so cute!" I looked to my right and I saw Miranda standing in front of one of the merchant stands, holding a pair of brown high heel shoes. _Where the hell did she come from?_ "What do you think, Antonio?"

"They'd look nice with that purse I saw a few stands back," I said.

"You really think so?"

"Pssh, no, I could care less about how they look."

"Well I bet you'd think they'd look cute on me, huh?"

"I don't really care how you look," I said.

"Because you think I look cute either way?" asked Miranda.

"No, because I don't care about how anyone looks," I said as I put my shirt back on and I turned to run away again.

Miranda just stood there completely dumbfounded at what I told her and it took her a second to shake off her shock before she started to chase me down the bazar. People were still crowding the place and this made it hard for me to actually sprint. My only way out was to climb on top of one of the stands and run along the buildings again so that's what I did. I was running along the roof tops again and I eventually jumped down after came upon banner that was hanging over the main boulevard. I could've easily run along the banner's cable but I needed to try and hide from Miranda at the same time. The street was pretty busy with slow moving traffic and I had to vault and slide over a bunch of vehicles as they waited for the traffic light to turn green. I was just glad than none of them blew their horns at me because they would alert Miranda to where I was at. However she didn't need them because when I looked back, she was running across the banner's cable. _She's good. I'll give her that much._ I continued to run down the street, jumping over rails and scaling walls that were in my way. Miranda was having no problem keeping up with me. I was smiling at the fact that she was able keep up with me so easily and I was planning on pushing her to her limit. I went down an alleyway I saw towards my right and saw that it was a dead end with a small square courtyard. There were no doorways or windows for me to exploit and there weren't any objects that I could climb on. I continued to run towards the courtyard and headed towards one of the corners. I then proceeded to jump and wall run towards the adjacent wall so that I could launch myself off the wall and onto the roof. Once I grabbed the edge of the wall, I pulled myself up and saw Miranda headed right for me.

As she was scaling the wall the same way I did, I headed towards the east and noticed that a mall was up ahead. _This should be good. _I jumped down from the roof and rolled to break the fall. From there I ran for the nearest entrance and I had to swan dive over a group of people so that I didn't hit them on accident. Needless to say, they were kind of impressed. The mall I entered was a two story shopping center. In the center of the mall was a huge fountain surrounded by a bunch of jewelry stores. This circle of jewelry stores made me think that the people of this city were more superficial than anything else. They were still walking around the place in their bathing suits and I couldn't wrap my head around that. The place was almost as crowded as the bazar but, people were moving a lot faster. I could blend in with a group of people a lot easier and I wanted to test how good Miranda actually was. She was easier to spot than I thought because I could see her trying to see over people as she tried looking for me. I was casually walking next to a large group of people that were headed in her direction. Along the way, I also started to wonder if she expected me to do this. In Pitbull, we were always taught to stay a few steps ahead of our opponent at all times. It was right then that I understood why our mentors were afraid of letting us have social interactions of any kind; it was a recipe for disaster. I couldn't let this chase carry on any longer because someone could end up getting hurt. When the group of people had finally reached Miranda, he was standing on a bench, scanning the crowd for me. I stood behind her and extended my arm out so that I was touching her lower back. I held my hand out like I was holding a gun and as soon as she felt me touching her, she froze.

"You got to work on your special awareness," I said and Miranda turned.

"Where did you come from?" she asked as she jumped down from the bench.

"That's for me to know and for you to never find out. Anyways, I'm going off to find my mentor so I figured I'd leave you somewhere nice before I ditched you."

"You don't want me to come with you?"

"No, I need to find him before he decides to do something to hurt himself," I said.

"What do you mean?" asked Miranda.

"He hasn't been himself since we left Wesson this morning. He stole a car when we first got here and I got the feeling that that's only the beginning."

"Is he normally like this?"

"No, why," I asked.

"One second," said Miranda and she pulled out her phone from her belt she was wearing under her sarong and proceeded to make a call. "Hey it's me. No, I just needed to ask you something about the guy you said you had to meet. What's his name? So that way I know who to castrate if he ends up breaking up with you. Fine then just tell me his first name. Okay, so where are you? I have a friend who needs a ride home and he's stranded here. I'm not screwing with you; he's another member of Pitbull and…."

Miranda wasn't able to finish her sentence before she took the phone away from her ear. I could hear the person on the other end yelling at her but I wasn't able to understand any of it. Miranda tried desperately to calm the person down but she soon gave up and ended the call. She then turned towards me and motioned me to follow her.

"So what was that all about?" I asked.

"What was your mentor's first name?"

"Nathan."

Miranda looked at her phone and I followed her outside of the mall. "Do you think you can keep up with me?" she asked.

"Yeah, why…"

Miranda didn't give me enough time to answer before she took off again and I ran after her we were headed northwest, back towards the beach. It was strange trying to follow her because I had never actually done parkour like this. It was like a game of high stakes tag with all the running, jumping, and climbing we did throughout the town. We were running along the rooftops again and I could see people looking up at us from below. I could hear them commenting about us saying that we were going to get the cops called on us while others were making joke about how desperate I seemed to get Miranda's number. My favorite comment was about how ninja we looked. We were running along a rather long building that I guessed was a strip mall. I was having fun and I actually felt myself smiling for the first time in a long time. I continued chasing after Miranda as she dropped down from the roof of the building and ran into an area that was being used for what I assume was a staging area for a parade. People were dressed in assorted costumes while others were preparing vehicles for something. Miranda was side stepping left and right to avoid everything while I was ducking, diving, and sliding under obstacles. One guy almost had a heart attack when I dove over the front of his vintage car after I slid under some guys who were carrying some pipes. Once I cleared the area, Miranda ran down another alleyway and dropped down a large flight of stairs that went straight ahead. I took a more stylish approach by grabbing a garbage can lid and used it to grind down the stair rail.

"Show off!" shouted Miranda.

"It was the perfect opportunity to do that and I wasn't going to waste it," I shouted back.

Miranda rolled her eyes and continued to run down the alleyway. We eventually came across a four way intersection where an SUV was slowly pulled in front of us and stopped when the driver saw us. We didn't stop and proceeded to run towards the SUV. When we got close enough, we both jumped and started to run along the wall so that we could jump over the vehicle. After we landed, I watched as Miranda started to run along the wall again and she proceeded to launch herself off the wall and start scaling the opposite wall until her momentum was gone, but that didn't stop her from going up. She was jumping between the walls at a rather quick pace and I was actually impressed she was able to do that. I followed her example until I reach the roof of the building she was on and we ran further north until we reached the end of the roof top. We jumped down from the rooftop again so that we were running on the sidewalk of a busy street. Miranda paused for a moment to look at her phone before she started to run again. _What was she looking at?_ I followed her down the street as she turned to run into a three story parking garage. We weren't sprinting anymore and we were now jogging up the ramps. When we reached the second story, Miranda turned the corner and just as I was about to follow her, I heard her start to struggle. I quickly turned the corner only to be met with a woman trying to swipe a knife at me. She was a tall, slender, Latina woman in her mid-thirties. She had long straight black hair and brown eyes to match. Her cheek bones were rather large and her nose had the little bulb at the end. _Harkin would be drooling over this woman if he was here._ I ducked to avoid the knife and leaned back when she tried to knee me in the head. I countered by trying to swipe her off her feet but she jumped back out of reach. The lady tried to charge towards me but Miranda quickly intervened to stop us from killing each other.

"Kallen, wait! He's not going to do anything!" shouted Miranda as she tried to hold back the lady.

"He's another subject from Pitbull. He can't be near you!"

"Why the hell not, he wasn't going to kill me," exclaimed Miranda. "At least I hope not."

"You'd already be dead if I wanted to kill you," I said.

"HEY!" shouted someone from the other side of the parking garage. I looked back to see Major Harkin come into view. He wasn't wearing his flight suit anymore and he was dressed in swimming trunks and a white t-shirt. "Keep the hell away from him, Ortiz."

"You should keep that little shit on a leash. You know they aren't supposed to be together like this," said the lady.

"Then you shouldn't have left your apprentice alone. I had my reason to do so but you didn't."

"You came to find me, Harkin. I couldn't let her know about you."

"Well she does now. Let's go, Kid," yelled Harkin and I ran over to him.

Miranda looked a little disappointed as she watched me walk away and I honestly didn't know what to feel. Harkin was cussing under his breath at something but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I followed Harkin to his car and we both got in. He seemed different than for when we arrived in Macon. We began to drive back towards the base in silence. I wanted to ask why he ditched me earlier and why he stole this car. More importantly, I wanted to know how he found me and who that lady was. They obviously knew each other and I gathered that she was the reason why Harkin brought me here. We eventually made it back to Camp Jarratt and Harkin parked the car he stole back into the spot he originally found it. He even duct taped a tarp over the broken window and he continued to cuss under his breath about something. I didn't know what to assume he was mumbling about. We headed back to the locker rooms and got changed into our flight gear. From there, we got back into the T-45 and began to prepare for takeoff. I quickly did the pre-flight checks and looked over my map to get an idea of what our flight path was going to look like. After doing a bunch of trigonometry in my head, I concluded that Wesson was around eight hundred miles from our current location if I took vector 070 northeast. I also had to factor in the weather conditions. If I had a head wind, it would take us longer to get there than if we had a tail wind.

"Alright, Kid, start her up and take us home," said Harkin in an annoyed tone.

_Something's up with him. _I started up the plane, taxied onto the runway, and requested clearance for takeoff from the control tower. Once I was clear, I throttled up and sped down the runway. As I was gaining altitude, I thought about how easy everything I just did was. It felt like it was already second nature and that I've done this all before, even though it was only the second time I did it. _Maybe I do belong in the sky. _Forty minutes into the flight, Harkin still hadn't said anything to me regarding Miranda's mentor or what his deal was earlier. In fact, he didn't say anything at all. He let me choose the heading we took home and the speed at which we were going. I wasn't really doing much as I flew the plane because flying in a straight line wasn't that hard. However, my paranoia got to me when I thought about this. I slowly looked over my left shoulder and saw that I was clear. Then I looked over my right shoulder. _What the hell?_ I saw a T-38 flying on my right wing in the five o' clock position.

"Major, do you see that?" I asked over the radio.

"See what?" he said in an annoyed tone.

"Take a look at our five o' clock."

I could see Harkin turn in his seat in my mirror and his reaction was similar to mine. "Where did they come from?" he asked.

"I don't know. I just spotted them," I said and I looked at our current position. I got the feeling Harkin was going to do something that I was kind of hoping he'd do. "Who are they?"

"How the hell should I know? Lose them," said Harkin.

I couldn't help but think that Harkin did in fact know them. Otherwise he wouldn't have told me to lose them. _Alright, here it goes._ I cut the throttle back, snapped the stick back, and applied full right rudder. The T-45 responded by barrel rolling over the T-38 and I fell into position off their right wing. My visor was down so they couldn't see my face and so was theirs. I could tell that the pilot and copilot were looking at us as I peeled away from them. When I looked back, I was actually surprised to see them following us. I found this rather odd because I had no idea where they came from or if they were going back to Wesson with us. I banked the plane lazily to the left and right to get a feel for how my plane handled and I quickly went over the specification of both of our planes in my head. My plane wasn't as fast as the T-38 but it was more maneuverable and had a lower stalling speed because of the shape of its wings. After I went through everything in my head, I throttled up and began to fly at full speed with the other set of pilots tight on my tail. I led them through a series of tight turns in an attempt to shake my pursuer. The G forces felt good pressing down on me but I couldn't hold them for long before I started to feel exhausted. I had no idea that all this maneuvering could be so demanding. I was holding a right bank and the T-38 was still holding position behind me as I tried to catch my breath.

"You better move, Kid. If this were a real fight, you'd be dead already," said Harkin.

"Don't worry about it," I replied and I braced myself for my next maneuver. While I was still banking right, I applied the left rudder, causing me to yaw upward. I then snapped the stick to the right and the T-45 performed a rolling scissor so that I ended up behind the T-38. "Ha-ha, my turn."

The T-38 pilot wasted no time in trying to shake me off of his tail and it actually had no problem staying glued to his tail. He led me to higher altitude while pulling a bunch of hard left and right turns. By the way he was flying; he was just as inexperienced as I was. He wasn't using his speed advantage to try and get away and at the rate he was climbing, he wasn't trying to use his planes higher service ceiling to out maneuver me. I must've chased the other pilot for three minutes before he went into a full speed dive towards the ground. Whether the other pilot knew it or not, he was going to out run me. I stayed behind him for as long as I could before he slowly started to put some distance between us. After he gained a half a mile over me, I broke off my chase from him and changed my heading to head back to Wesson. When I looked back, the T-38 was headed for me again to try and get on my tail. He was coming in too fast so I decided to test him. I was going just over three hundred miles an hour while the other guy was coming at me at full speed. He was on top of me within a matter of seconds and as soon as he was close enough, I pulled a high G-barrel roll over him and got on his tail. The guy didn't slow down and I guessed that he figured out that he could out run me because he kept going. _Let's see just how smart this guy is._ I nosed up and applied full throttle so that I could gain as much altitude as I could before the T-38 could come back towards me. I was at ten thousand feet when the other pilot began to head for us. From here, I could easily avoid him because I had an altitude advantage over him. He came up as fast as he could and tried to get on my tail by shooting past me and pulling into a wide right turn while maintaining his speed. I turned into him and began to climb towards his plane while he dove on me. We were closing at an alarming rate and neither one of us showed signs of loosening up.

"Kid, what are you doing?" asked Harkin kind of nervously.

"Testing this guy's nerves," I said.

"Loosen up," said Harkin.

"Why?"

"Because, he's not going to let up," warned Harkin.

"Do you mean the student or the instructor?" I asked.

I could see the contemplation in Harkin's eyes as thought about my question. It made me realize that he knew who the pilot of that plane was and that he had some idea of who the student was. _Is that the Roselyn Sanchez looking lady we ran into earlier? Is that Miranda in there?! No, it can't be…could it?_ I was nervous about whether or not I should keep going because from what I was able to figure out from Miranda, she was a persistent girl. Then again, so was I. She would've known that we were both stubborn. Regardless of who was flying that plane, I kept pushing forward. I was smiling as the distance between us closed very rapidly and I let go of the flight stick. Harkin was screaming at me to break off but I thought it was kind of stupid because he could've easily taken control of the plane for me and maneuvered out of the way, but he didn't. I could clearly see the other pilots freaking out in the cockpit of the other plane when we were close enough. The pilot in the back seat brought their hands up to their face and the pilot in the front broke to their left while I kept going. They didn't turn back around to follow me as I headed back to Wesson. Instead, they headed for Harwood, which was like a hundred and ninety miles south of Wesson. I figured that they couldn't be that lady and Miranda if they were headed that way.

"So who were those two?" I asked.

"A couple of old friends of mine that I knew from seven years ago," said Harkin. "One of them is going to be working closely with you for the remainder of the war."

"What's his name?"

"You'll find out tomorrow. For now, just concentrate on getting us back to Wesson alive," said Harkin and he cut off his mic.

He was still acting weird and I was getting really annoyed by him. That wasn't really the only thing that annoyed me. I kept thinking about Miranda and what she was doing in Macon with her mentor. I still couldn't shake the feeling that Miranda and her mentor were the pilots in that T-38 and that they were going to land an hour behind us to keep us separated. Other than that, I felt great now that I actually flew a jet for the first time ever. I thought this day couldn't any better, but sadly, I was right.

**1809hrs, Wesson Osea**

We were twenty miles away from Camp Curtiss's airfield and I could see storm clouds billowing in the distance. I knew the weather report warned about heavy rain but I didn't think it would be this bad. The clouds were so thick that I couldn't see the sun and the entire city's lights lit up like it was nine o'clock at night. The lightning wasn't the least bit comforting either and I felt like Hans Solo when he was being pulled into the Death Star as I headed for the storm. _Alright, here we go. _I took a deep breath and prepared myself to land in this storm. This was going to test my skills and I figured God wanted to see how badly I wanted to go to war. I was going to land this plane and I was going to find my place in the sky.

"Major?" I hailed over the radio, but he didn't respond. "Major," I said again, but he still didn't respond. I looked in my rearview mirror to see Harkin leaning his head against the canopy with his visor down. I snapped the stick over and Harkin hit his head on the opposite side of the canopy. He jolted awake and started fumbling at the controls. "Oh good, you're awake." I heard Harkin turn his radio back on.

"You're an asshole," said Harkin.

"So I've been told. Anyways, do you want to ask the tower for clearance or something?"

"Curtis tower, this is Major Nathan Harkin of the 118th Tactical Fighter Wing returning from Macon. We're coming in for a rough landing from the southeast," said Harkin.

"We read you, Major. We cannot clear you to land right now. The wind is blowing crosswinds at both runways."

"That wasn't a request. We're dangerously low on fuel and we can't make it to any other base. We're coming in. Have EMS and fire control on standby."

"Are you serious, Major?" I asked.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained," he replied and he took over the controls.

_Shit. _I tried to prepare myself before we headed into the storm. The wind was knocking us around a lot and I knew Harkin was struggling to keep control of the plane. The T-45 was bucking left and right. The wings were dipping down when Harkin didn't want them to and he couldn't maintain a steady altitude. I was getting tossed around in my seat and the nausea I felt earlier was starting to return. My heart was racing again and I could feel an adrenaline rush coming on. Harkin was grunting as he tried to keep the plane level and just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, a bolt of lightning struck our right wing and sent the plan into a spiral towards the ground. We were at five thousand feet when we began to fall and I could see Harkin had the shit startled out of him when I looked back at him. He was holding his head in his hands and I wasn't in any better condition. _Come on, shake it off and take control of the plane._ My ears were still ringing as I gripped the stick and pulled back on it while I applied the rudder to stop the spiral. Pulling back on the stick was like trying to win a game of tug of war against a guy who was twice as strong as I was. _ I'm not going to die here!_ The adrenaline rush I felt started to take over my body and I could feel the stick moving in the direction I wanted it to. We were still spiraling towards the ground pretty fast and I tried screaming to help motivate myself to pull harder. I couldn't hear myself yelling because I still couldn't hear anything from when the lightning struck the plane. I didn't know how high we were when I was finally able to pull out of the spiral but I somehow managed to recover. When I looked up to check the altimeter, it was pointed at zero, but so was the speedometer. I looked at the HUD and saw that it wasn't displaying anything. Some of the electronics and other instruments were fried and now we had to try and judge everything with our eye and instincts. I could see the lights of the runway of Camp Curtis and I tried to guide the plane over there as carefully as I could. Harkin was still holding his head in his hands and I figured that he was in no shape to continue flying. My nausea grew worse the closer we got to the runway. Each passing second was more agonizing than the last.

"Major, are you still with me?" I asked, but he didn't reply. I tried calling his name a couple more times before I gave up. I was on my own but I wasn't scared. However, I was nervous as all hell. The thought that I wouldn't walk away from this one was kind of exhilarating but I didn't let it stop me. I closed my eyes and took a couple deep breaths before I started to focus on landing the plane. I had no idea what I was doing but I had to go off of what I usually did while I was playing Ace Warfare. The first thing I did was apply more power to the engine so that I could gain some altitude. We were about two miles away before I lowered the landing gear and cut back on the throttle. When I put the throttle at thirty percent, I heard a loud boom and when I looked back in the mirror, I could vaguely see a black smoke trail coming from the right intake. _Son of a bitch!_ We were losing airspeed pretty fast and I didn't think that I could keep the plane up in the air for much longer. My reflexes allowed me to keep the plane steady for the most part but it would be useless if I didn't have any airspeed._ I need lift!_ I lowered the flaps and the plane began to buck even more. I tried my best to keep it under control but it was still too much. We were coming in for a rough landing. The runway was coming up slowly and I could see the emergency vehicles' lights on the other end of it. _ Come on just a little more, baby. You can make it! Rico is going to give you a complete overhaul when you save our lives. _Just as I was about to drop the nose and hit the ground, a large gust of wind force the tail of the T-45 to swing left and the left wing to dip down. I quickly snapped the stick to the right and applied full left rudder to counter the wind's control but it wasn't soon enough. The left wheel touched down first while the nose was still pointed up and to the right, causing the plane to swing to the left. I tried to apply the right rudder to ease the stress on the right wheel as it touched down, but the force of the nose wheel made me feel like it was going to collapse. I was pulling back on the stick and applied the brakes, hoping that I wouldn't die. The total amount of time it took for me to come to a complete stop seemed like an hour passed by when it actually took ten seconds. When we finally stopped, I took in everything that was going on outside. It seemed like buckets of water were continuously being poured over our canopy and I could hear the wind howling as well. The emergency vehicles were rushing towards our position to make sure that we were alright. My whole body was shaking and I couldn't get it to stop.

"Kid," said Harkin over the radio. "Any pilot will tell you. Any landing that you walk away from is a good landing."

**1921hrs Mom's House**

"There you are, where've you been?" asked my mother as I walked through the front door.

"Job training took longer than usual because of the weather," I said.

"Are you feeling okay?" asked Amanda.

"Yeah, why," I asked

"You look kind of pale, like you just had a near death experience or something."

_You have no idea. _"Yeah, some guy almost T-boned Harkin's car on Western Boulevard when we were coming off base."

"Oh, well I saved you some meat loaf in the oven in case you're hungry," said my mother.

_Dammit_. "That's okay, I'm not hungry," I said and I walked down the hallway towards the bathroom. I reflected on everything about the landing and everything just seemed to come flooding back as I brushed my teeth to get the taste of vomit out of my mouth. It wasn't until we got out of the cockpit that I actually contemplated everything in a way that I had never done before. I was actually that close to dying and the more I thought about it, the more I started to think that it was fear. The last time I actually remembered that I was afraid was when I was eight, but I couldn't remember what it felt like. My body was still shaking as I thought about everything and my nausea began to come back stronger than ever. I knew I told Harkin that I wanted this but now, I had a small bit of doubt in my head. _There's no going back._ Other than that, I started to think about all the other stuff that happened today. I thought more about how Miranda ended up in Macon and how both of our mentors acted towards each other. They knew each other and Harkin went looking for Ortiz, but why didn't she want Miranda to know about him? Why did he ditch me to go find Ortiz? My train of thought was interrupted when I heard a knock on the bathroom door. I finished brushing my teeth and opened the door to see my little sister standing in the door way, holding an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat).

"I know how much you don't like mom's meat loaf so I got you this," she said.

I couldn't help but smile and give her a hug.


End file.
